PHOTO BY MAGGIE PUND

the

T H E I N D E P E N D E N T S T U D E N T- R U N N E W S PA P E R O F N O R T H E R N K E N T U C K Y U N I V E R S I T Y

orthernerEdition 52, Issue 2 [THENORTHERNER.COM] Thursday, August 29, 2013

A LOOK INSIDE:

NEWS, PAGE 3 ARTS & LIFE, PAGE 9

Senior stands for student popula-tion in Strategic Planning process

Professor publishes book with help from student

Fall soccer season kicks off for Norse men and women

CHECK IT OUT:A student smoker talks about her ‘bad habit’ and the

ban that aims to change her ways - SEE PAGE 7.

TOBACCO BAN

Tobacco Policy Task

Force takes next step

in NKU’s transition to

a tobacco-free campus

SEE PAGE 6

facebook.com/northernermedia @northernermedia

ignites change

SPORTS, PAGE 10

NEWS Thursday, August 29, 201302

ews

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furtherdetailsEntire content is copyright of The Northerner and may not be reprinted without prior consent. Views expressed do not represent those of the administration, faculty or student body. The Northerner is considered a designated public forum. Student editors have authority to make all content decisions without censorship or advance approval. The Northerner staff respects the right to a free and open dialogue as allowed under the First Amendment.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFKevin Schultz[schultzk2@nku.edu]

COPY DESK CHIEFStephen Wilder[wilders3@nku.edu]

DESIGN EDITOR Emily Lindeau [lindeaue1@nku.edu]

PRINT NEWS EDITORMaggie Pund[pundm1@nku.edu]

WEB NEWS EDITORMac Payton[paytonj1@nku.edu]

SPORTS EDITORBrook Clifford[cliffords1@nku.edu]

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORAlyson Schoenung[schoenunga1@nku.edu]

PHOTO EDITORKody Kahle[kahlek1@nku.edu]

WEB EDITORBrendan Dickinson[dickinsonb1@nku.edu]

VIDEO EDITORRobert Huelsman[huelsmanr1@nku.edu]

PROMO DIRECTORChanell Karr[karrc3@nku.edu]

SALES MANAGER Erica DiMartino[dimartinoe1@nku.edu]

SALES ASSISTANTAshley Hyden[hydena1@nku.edu]

STAFF WRITERS:

Erin Mullins[mullinse@nku.edu]

Richard Cracchiolo[cracchiolr1@nku.edu]

Amber Coakley[coakleya@nku.edu]

Amber Tewes[tewesa2@nku.edu]

Brad Bishop[bishopb4@nku.edu]

Matt Hempfling[hempflingm3@nku.edu]

Derek White[whited7@nku.edu]

Evan Merrill[merrille2@nku.edu]

Abigail Hull[hulla3@nku.edu]

ADVISERMichele Day[daymi@nku.edu]

ARTS & LIFE EDITORNancy Curtis [curtisn1@nku.edu]

Diana Barrett[barrettd2@nku.edu]

THEAROUND

UNIVERSITY

POLICEBEATSu n i v e r s i t y

Jessica Kopena[kopenaj1@nku.edu]

Northern Kentucky Leadership Institute-Freshman Ultimate Night! (FUN)

Northern Kentucky Leadership Institute invites new students to join them on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 7:10 p.m. at The Great American Ballpark where the Cincinnati Reds face the St. Louis Cardinals. Tickets are priced at $10 apiece for students and are available for purchase in the Office of Student Engagement, SU room 303. For more information, contact Tiffany Mayse at mayset@nku.edu.

NKU ranked one of the top colleges for fu-ture service members in Kentucky

The College Database, a current and compre-hensive source for U.S. college and university data, ranked NKU among the top colleges for future service members. With an annual tuition rate of $7,488 and ROTC programs for the Army and the Air Force, NKU ranks second on the list right be-hind Kentucky State University.

NKU’s Panhellenic Community invites you to participate in formal sorority recruit-ment

The deadline to sign up for formal recruitment is

Wednesday, Sept. 4. In order to be eligible for re-cruitment, you must be a full-time undergraduate student at NKU with either a high school or college GPA of 2.5 or above. Recruitment lasts from Sept. 5 to Sept. 9. For more information contact Panhel-lenic Council President Kelsey Patterson at patter-sonk4@nku.edu.

NKU Best Buddies looking for more mem-bers

Best Buddies is a non-profit organization at NKU that strives to create friendships between college students and people with intellectual and develop-mental disabilities. The first meeting is Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. in the SU 302. For more information, email bestbuddiesnku@yahoo.com.

Campus police acquire explosives-detection canine

In light of recent attacks, such as the bombing of the Boston Marathon and the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementa-ry School, the NKU Police Department has decided to acquire an explosives-detection canine.

“We’re constantly reviewing our policies and procedures to find in-novative and new ways to keep NKU and the surrounding community safe,” University Police Chief Jason Willis said.

An officer from the department traveled to a specialized kennel in In-diana this month to select the canine, named Arritt. It is estimated that it will take a month to train the German Shepherd.

The funding for this acquisition comes from grants from the United States Department of Homeland Se-

curity as well as the law enforcement division of Hamilton County, Ohio. The cost of acquiring and training this canine is estimated to be between $12-13,000, with minimal expected recur-ring costs, according to Willis.

The dog’s sole purpose will be to patrol campus with its assigned offi-cer. However, students are permitted to approach the dog and interact with it as long as duties aren’t impeded. Willis expects the dog to not interrupt routine campus functions, and states he could even see the canine as a “pet away from home” for students.

Sophomore pre-nursing major Vivi-en Raper said, “I think that the police department getting an explosives dog is a good idea. I don’t see any bad in it.”

Willis also states that he is open to allowing neighboring police depart-ments to use the canine if needed.

NKU isn’t the only university to

acquire these types of canines. The University of Tennessee-Knoxville acquired explosives-detecting dogs earlier this year, according to the uni-versity’s website. Cornell University has explosives-detecting canines as well, according to The Cornell Sun, Cornell’s independent student news-paper.

The dogs detect explosives through scent, as they are introduced to the smell of various explosives from a young age and taught to give a physical cue, such as sitting, when they detect explosive material.

Willis says his department’s num-ber-one goal with this initiative is to keep NKU safe.

“NKU and the Highland Heights area is a safe community,” he said. “We’re always looking for new and in-novative ways to keep it that way, and this shows it.”

Patrick ReaganCONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KEVIN SCHULTZNKU Police Officer Todd Streitenberger with his new explosives detection canine Arritt. The canine’s first day on campus was Aug. 26.

Between Aug. 22, 1 p.m. and Aug. 23, 8 a.m.: Someone graffitied a “tag” onto the wall of a bathroom stall in the 3rd floor men’s restroom. The case is currently open.

Aug. 26, 3:09 p.m.: A man fell on Kenton Drive and was taken to the University Health Center.

Aug. 26, 3:29 p.m.: Someone struck a parked car in Lot M next to Norse Commons and drove off in a hit-and-run.

Aug. 27, between 8 and 10 a.m.: Someone drew on a bath-room stall wall with a marker in Landrum. The case is currently open.

Aug. 27, 2:17 p.m.: A verbal argument between a boyfriend and girlfriend turned physical inside Commonwealth Hall. Property was damaged. However, charges are not being filed.

Aug. 28, 1:49 a.m.: A female resident of Commonwealth Hall was drunk and had to be transported to the hospital by ambulance.

NKU’s police force is making an effort to be more en-gaged in campus life. While the force’s main priority is to keep students safe, they are now working to connect with the campus community and make students feel more comfortable around them.

When University Police Chief Jason Willis came to NKU, he listened as people described their experience with campus police.

“I got a lot of feedback from the community about the relationship they had with the police department,” he said. “Based on that feedback, I knew what direction this police department needed to go in.”

From those comments, Willis determined that the NKU police needed to be more visible and engaged on campus for two reasons: to make their presence less for-midable and to encourage people to come to police with any concerns.

“We’re here for the students and because of the stu-dents,” he said. “By being visible and accessible, I would

be able to address some of the concerns they had.”In order to make police presence more visible, Willis

determined that officers should be out on campus, pa-trolling and directing traffic.

But Willis also wants police to be among the students in social areas, such as the Student Union or the library, walking around, talking with students, and being a friendly face. He commented that many times, students see a police officer and they think there is a problem.

“[The situation] might concern [the students],” fresh-man Rachel Boylson said. “[They may ask], why are they here, what’s going on?”

“If [students] see an officer, it’s not because there’s a problem, it’s because the officer is investing in them,” said Director of University Housing Arnie Slaughter.

Willis said he wants students to get used to having a police presence on campus and to not feel threatened by them.

“We’re not here to get people in trouble. We’re here to provide a safe environment,” he said. “It really doesn’t take any extra policing skill for this to happen. A lot of times, all it takes is to be a friendly face…not sitting in

the back of the parking lot with the windows rolled up; it’s being out and approachable.”

Anthony Williams, an NKU police officer, said, “I openly engage [with the]…students.”

Willis’ second goal was making officers more acces-sible to students and staff so that people would come to the police with any concerns they have.

“I would like for students to not be afraid to call the police or to talk to us about things that have happened to them,” Willis said.

Boylson said that having the officers around would make her more comfortable.

Officers will be accessible to students in the residential areas as well as on campus.

According to Williams, he patrols Kentucky and Com-mowealth halls, talking to students and making sure he’s visible to them.

Overall, Chief Willis wants students to be comfortable with the police force.

“We’re here to provide a service, and we want students to look at us that way,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re here for the success of the students.”

For the last several months, senior business management major Katie Cox has represented NKU’s almost 16,000 students on the university’s strategic planning committee.

The committee is putting together a five-year plan to lead the university into its 50th anniversary in 2018, wrote Presi-dent Geoffrey Mearns in a statement on the strategic planning committee’s web-site.

“This new plan will be our roadmap for developing and implementing strategies, programs, and initiatives,” Mearns wrote. “The plan will articulate a clear, succinct mission and vision of the university, and it will set strategic priorities that will guide our work and our investments.”

Cox said that she was chosen by Presi-dent Geoffrey Mearns through her in-volvement with the Student Government Association.

Mearns approached SGA in November of 2012, asking for students who were available for the entire calendar year of 2013 to submit resumes and cover letters for review, according to Cox.

She said there were only a few nomi-nations submitted through SGA, and she was ultimately chosen.

“[President Mearns] wanted someone who wouldn’t graduate until after No-vember 2013, when we present the final plan to the Board of Regents,” Cox said. “He wanted someone who was very in-volved on campus, so that he could get a lot of student outreach.”

Cox said that she has found the task of representing the entire student body “ap-propriately challenging.” She also said

that she talks to a lot of people.“I talk to new students all the time,

whether it’s in class, or walking to class, or in the Union at lunch,” she said. “I al-ways ask them, ‘What do you love about NKU?’”

Vickie Natale, the executive director of planning and performance, said that Cox was never afraid to express the students’ point of view.

“That has been extremely helpful for us,” Natale said. “Sometimes, some of us [on the committee] might forget that, and she’s been a good representative [for the students].”

Natale said that, in addition to giving the committee a student’s perspective, she made sure that all kinds of students were heard from, ensuring that some of the open forums in the spring semester of 2013 were held specifically with students in mind.

While giving the students’ perspective to the other 12 members of the Strategic Planning Committee, Cox said that she also gained a unique perspective from the standpoint of the university’s administra-tion.

“When you’re a student, you just know what the students have going on, and what’s in the students’ life,” Cox said. “You don’t really understand the admin-istrative side of campus.”

Cox used the problems that most stu-dents have with parking as an example.

“Part of the plan to fix [parking] and the reason it hasn’t been fixed currently, is that down the road, we’re going to be creating an exit ramp from [Interstate] 275 straight into NKU.” Cox said that it will help alleviate some of the current traffic problems, “so there’s really no pur-

pose in fixing parking currently, because you’re just going to tear it up later and fix it better down the road.”

One of the biggest things students can expect from the strategic plan is more in-clusiveness, which Cox has been working for during her time on the strategic plan-ning committee.

For example, Natale said that one thing Cox was very insistent upon is that there was an open forum for night-time stu-dents.

“Inclusivity makes me a little con-cerned, because I don’t feel like all of our students feel included,” Cox said.

According to Cox, inclusiveness is one value that is very important to the com-mittee, and making every student feel in-cluded in the university is a big part of the strategic plan.

Both Cox and Natale said that the draft of the strategic plan which will be present-ed to the university community on Sept. 1 is up for revisions. Similar to last spring, there will be open forums held, and the plan will be able to be revised before being presented to the Board of Regents at the November meeting.

Ed 52, Issue 2 NEWS 03

Mac PaytonNEWS EDITOR

Kerry SkiffCONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTO COURTESY OF KATIE COX

NKU Senior Katie Cox stands with university president Geoffrey Mearns. Cox has worked with Mearns and other members of the Strategic Planning Committee, planning for NKU’s future.

Student represents 16,000 in plans for NKU’s future

Police officers aim to connect with students

NEWS Thursday, August 29, 201304

At 7 a.m. on Aug. 20, Rick Seal didn’t want to wake up his room-mates living with him in A302 in Callahan Hall. Unfortunately, he wasn’t successful in his mission.

“I had the earliest class,” Seal said. “[My roommates] were asleep…. I was almost all ready, but I had to go put my shirt down to brush my teeth.” He realized there was a near-by spot to hang his shirt up: a fire sprinkler.

When Seal came back to take the shirt off of the hanger, that’s when it happened: “I tapped [the sprinkler’s seal] with the hanger when I took the shirt off.” Water came pouring out of the sprinkler then, he said, waking up all of his roommates.

According to System Sensor, a company that makes building fire detection and fighting equipment, these sprinklers can pump out more than 10 gallons per minute.

Right after the sprinkler acti-vated, Seal went looking for help. He tried his resident assistant, who he said was in the shower. He went down to the front desk of Callahan, which wasn’t open yet.

Within minutes, water had begun to go through to lower floors, flood-ing the entirety of Callahan’s A-wing, and the fire alarms were blar-ing, waking the rest of the residents up and forcing them outside.

“When I woke up, it was raining from the ceiling,” said Trevor Mat-thews, former resident of Callahan room A202. Matthews said he is be-ing relocated to Norse Hall.

Director of University Housing Arnie Slaughter said the full amount of damage has not been calculated; however, it was much less than it could have been.

“Luckily, my staff, the facilities team, residence life team, and even our outside contractor, they re-sponded immediately to the scene,” Slaughter said, “so the amount of damage that could have occurred was significantly lessened.”

Slaughter also praised sever-al quick-thinking residents, who

placed rolled-up towels and floor mats in front of their doors before evacuating the building.

“[These students] potentially not only saved their floor in their specif-ic room, but also caused that water to not seep through the floor right below them,” Slaughter said.

Slaughter said that the university is addressing this situation by fur-thering residents’ knowledge about not messing around with the sprin-kler system and the smoke detec-tors.

“It’s mainly about education, and making sure that students are aware of carefully thinking,” Slaughter said.

The university has placed posters inside Norse Commons and Calla-han Hall, showing a picture of a fire sprinkler and reading “Need a place to hang? Try somewhere else.”

“I think it was one of those not-thinking moments,” University Po-lice Chief Jason Willis said. “I don’t think there was any intent to do damage, but I think it’s one of those things that probably wasn’t the best decision.”

Seal admits it was a stupid mis-take.

“I personally…have tried to get every person whose room I have af-fected, to personally say sorry,” Seal said. “I want to say ‘I’m sorry,’ be-cause I screwed up.”

Residents living in rooms directly below A302 (A102 and A202) have been moved out permanently, so that the amount of damage can be fully assessed and repaired before residents are moved back into those rooms, according to Slaughter.

Danielle Hoffman, former resi-dent of A102, said, “I really didn’t know how bad it was going to be until I got back in our room for 10 minutes to get my books for class, and there was a solid inch of water…throughout the room.”

Since there was no malicious in-tent, there will be no criminal charg-es filed, according to Willis. He said he hopes people learn from this and won’t mess around with the water sprinklers.

Mac PaytonNEWS EDITOR

Student triggers fire sprinkler, floods A-wing of Callahan Hall

PHOTO BY MAC PAYTON

A desk and electronic equipment directly underneath the fire sprinkler were damaged. The sprin-kler was triggered by a student on Aug. 20 and flooded an entire wing of Callahan Hall.

“He is dedicated to keeping his classes current and interesting to students.” - Gail Wells

An NKU kinesiology professor has

received the 2013 Frank Sinton Mil-burn Outstanding Professor Award.

On Aug. 16, 2013, Alar Lipping re-ceived the award after being nomi-nated by his peers throughout the university. Two weeks before physi-cally receiving the award, he received a phone call letting him know that he had won.

“I know a number of previous recip-ients and I thought that I would never get this award,” Lipping said.

Lipping was chosen for the award after the Outstanding Professor Award Selection Committee looked over his nomination.

“The committee that makes the de-cision is a committee of your peers,” Lipping said. “It includes a mem-ber from each college of the univer-sity, last year’s recipient, a member from Faculty Senate and includes the vice provost of the university. That is something meaningful that your peers recognize this.”

Many of Lipping’s peers agree that he deserves the award. Gail Wells, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, thinks that it is a great experience to work with Lipping.

“He is dedicated to keeping his classes current and interesting to

students,” Wells said. “He sets high standards for them and helps them to meet those standards.”

Wells said Lipping cares about this campus and has done his best to improve the university. Wells has worked with Lipping throughout the four years that he was president of the Faculty Senate.

“He was a very strong president of Faculty Senate,” Wells said. She also said Lipping is “very organized and rational.”

Grace Hiles, current secretary of the Faculty Senate, commented on how Lipping considers all the differ-ent perspectives of a situation and then moves into formal conversation about the issue at hand.

“He wanted to know how something was going to affect not only the pres-ent but also the future, particularly on behalf of younger faculty members,” Hiles said.

Hiles said Lipping was great at communicating with people personal-ly. “If someone had something to ad-dress, he made an effort to address it; he made a personal visit to them. He felt discussion was best face-to-face, and it made a world of difference.”

According to Lisa Schultz, Aca-demic Coordinator of the Department of Kinesiology and Health, Lipping cares about issues on campus. He has dealt with many issues, including

health insurance costs and how park-ing around the university is affecting the staff’s income.

“He tried to propose a lower park-ing fee for staff, but it was not passed,” Schultz said. “He really seems to care about everyone at the university.”

These are the many contributions that have helped Lipping win the Frank Sinton Milburn Outstanding Professor Award. He won by assem-

bling material, his scholarly work, his teaching evaluations, letters recom-mending him for the award and the service activities that he has compiled throughout his 25 years of teaching at the university. To Lipping, win-ning the award is significant because his colleagues are the ones who chose him as the winner.

rts & LifeEd 52, Issue 2 ARTS & LIFE 05

Lipping recieves the 2013 Frank Sinton Milburn Outstanding Professor Award at the Fall Convocation. He was recognized for his work both as a professor and former Faculty Senate president.

PHOTO BY KODY KAHLE

Peers name Alar Lipping ‘outstanding professor’

Jessica KopenaSTAFF WRITER

WHATTO DOt h i s w e e k e n d . . .

Bud Light’s LIVE at the Levee Summer Concert Series @ The New-port Levee

Aug. 29, 7-10pm, on the Riverfront Plaza

Bud Light’s LIVE at the Levee has re-turned to Northern Kentucky. Admission to the concert series is free, and this week-end’s headlining band will be The Wham-mies.

More info: www.newportonthelevee.com

WEBN Fireworks - RiverfestSept. 1, all day eventThis Labor Day weekend the annual

WEBN fireworks display ends the summer with a bang. Food, beverages, and numer-ous stages of live entertainment will be held on both sides of the river before the pyrotechnic display begins at 9 p.m. Alco-hol is prohibited.

Admission is free, and all events begin at noon.

More info: www.riverfestcincinnati.com or www.webn.com

Old Timer’s Day in Rabbit Hash, Ky.

Aug. 31, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.The historic town of Rabbit Hash cel-

ebrates its 34th annual country festival this weekend. Vendors, games, live music,

and more will line the downtown streets. Admission is free, and live music begins at 6 p.m.

More info: www.rabbithash.com

Washington Park Outdoor Movie Night

Aug. 31 , around 9 p.m., 1230 Elm St., Cincinnati, Ohio.

Washington Park welcomes couples and singles alike to enjoy their weekly movie night on the Civic Lawn. From clas-sic movies to new releases, each weekend offers a different film.

More info: www.washingtonpark.org

Have a chance to get off campus this weekend? Check out the nightlife and events happening in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

06 NEWS SPECIAL

NKU’s tobacco policy task force is transitioning the university to tobacco-free this semester by putting up permanent signage, developing a compliance policy and talking to smokers.

The campus-wide tobacco ban is set for January 2014. Accord-ing to NKU’s Dean of Students Jeffrey Waple, the task force will focus on finding places where people smoke on campus, what he calls smoker “hot spots,” this semester.

“We’re going to figure out where we need to put up more mar-keting and also we’re going to be concentrating on talking to peo-ple in those areas about what’s happening in the future,” Waple said.

The task force will be meeting on Aug. 29 to review a draft of the compliance policy that Steven Weiss, a communications pro-

fessor and one of the task force chairs, has written.Weiss and Waple are both task force chairs. Karen Campbell,

former director of wellness and the third chair, resigned this sum-mer to accept another position elsewhere.

The task force also plans to set dates for permanent signage and compliance in the Aug. 29 meeting, according to Waple.

NKU is using the University of Kentucky’s tobacco policy to learn from. UK went tobacco-free in 2009 and, according to NKU’s tobacco task force’s meeting minutes, has started a web-site where people can anonymously upload pictures of people violating the tobacco ban.

Dean Waple said he doubts that NKU will do anything like that.“One of the things is [UK] did not have a compliance piece in

place,” Waple said. “I don’t believe that, from a student perspec-tive, this is a suspendable offense unless we have a repeat viola-tor.”

Many smokers on campus say the changes NKU is undergoing

do not respect their rights.“I kind of think it’s a little ridiculous,” Kelli Harmon, an early

childhood development major said. “I think it’s taking away a right.”

“The ban shouldn’t happen because it’s going to cause a lot of problems,” said sophomore computer information technology major Aaron Brzezinski. “Right now, it’s regulated. What about the staff members who are going eight hours a day without smok-ing?”

Brzesinski said the current smoking ban, where smoking is permitted in designated spots, would work if NKU did more to enforce it.

According to Debbie Patton, an NKU faculty member in Allied Health, nicotine replacement therapy products, such as nicotine gum, patches, lozenges and inhalers, will still be allowed on cam-pus after the ban is implemented. E-cigarettes did not make this list because they too closely resemble cigarettes.

Richard CracchioloSTAFF WRITIER

Task force takes next step in ban

PHOTOS BY KEVIN SCHULTZ

The next steps are being made in NKU’s transition to a tobacco-free campus, including things such as new marketing. Students are voicing mixed reactions.

Students question tobacco-free policiesFreshmen coming to NKU’s campus this fall have to adapt to college

life as well as the university’s enforcement of the new tobacco-free policy beginning in January 2014.

Though the ban affects the NKU community as a whole, freshmen smokers living on campus this year are impacted by the stress entering college brings, on top of learning to live on a tobacco-free campus.

Kayla Brown is one of these new students entering an unfamiliar en-vironment with a habit the university does not support. As a freshman chemistry major, Brown will soon be forced to find a new spot to relieve her anxiety or a completely new way to cope with the stress college un-loads each day.

“Everybody knows [smoking] is bad; if you don’t, you’re just a dumbass,” Brown said. “I mean it’s a stupid thing to do, but at the same time [it helps] those who have anxiety. That’s why I started to smoke, because it helped with my anxiety.”

It becomes obvious Brown is not alone in this self-medication method when walking throughout the campus each day. Whether it is a picnic bench on a hill or a gazebo next to a dorm, students can be seen con-gregating in certain “smoking spots” soon after classes commence each semester.

“I personally do not think they can enforce [the ban],” Brown said. “I guess if it was just a few people, it wouldn’t be that bad. But, since there is so many, it’s going to be super hard to enforce it...Hell, there are profes-sors that smoke.”

Every year, more incoming freshman around the country are confront-ed with the reality that a habit they developed before college is not wel-come on campus. At this demanding time in their life, many freshmen are forced to decide whether to change a sometimes significant aspect of their daily lifestyle or to ignore the ban and face the possible consequences if caught.

As a full-time chemistry major and resident of Woodcrest apartments on campus, Brown said she chooses to deal with the official tobacco-free enforcement next semester by trying to kick the longtime habit, instead of throwing “a big bitch fit” about the ban.

“In a way it’s good because it is going to cause me to quit [smoking] even if I may not want to,” she said.

However, Brown’s decision to quit was not directly inspired by the ban, and she does not believe the ban will inspire other student or staff smok-ers to quit. Quitting has to be a personal decision or it will not stick, she said.

“You have to really want to improve yourself on your own, not... be told by a campus to do it,” she said.

A Spring 2011 survey, presented by the Wellness Center, revealed that approximately 89 percent of students and staff at NKU do not smoke. Of those who do smoke, the study revealed that 75 percent want to quit.

The anxiety connection

When returning home after a long day of classes, many students look for ways to unwind and regroup before taking on the additional demands of their life in college.

While some students’ vice of choice to cope and comfort themselves might be heavily drinking or getting lost for endless hours in a video game, Brown chooses to relax and refocus in her “smoking spot” outside her home on campus.

“[Smoking] keeps me calm; it keeps me centered,” Brown said. “When I’m stressed out it helps me refocus.”

Many factors play into people’s decision to take that first drag. Genet-ics, peer pressure, advertising and anxiety disorders can all influence a person’s choice to smoke.

Brown’s addiction began while she was in high school as her way to help relieve the anxiety in her life. She feels smoking provides her with an alleviation from the stressors and concerns she experiences daily.

Smokers with a history of anxiety disorders have a more difficult time quitting smoking, according to a study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.

Megan Piper, a lead researcher for the study, believes smokers with anxiety conditions might find less success using quitting methods, such as nicotine patches or lozenges. These methods satisfy the chemical part of the addiction, but they do not address the emotional addiction compo-nent anxious smokers need to quit.

She is one of many young adults throughout the nation that picked up smoking as a teen and entered college addicted. Though people claim to smoke in order to reduce their mental health symptoms, many usually start lighting up before the problems that have them reaching for a ciga-rette arise.

In 2010, 24.8 percent of full-time college students between the ages of 18-22 were current smokers, according to 2012 Surgeon General’s Report on Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults.

Each day, about 3,900 youths that are under the age of 18 try their first cigarette; 950 of these children will end up regular daily smokers, accord-ing to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

The younger people are when they start using tobacco, the more likely and more heavily they will become addicted to nicotine, according to the American Lung Association.

Of adults who smoke, 68 percent started regularly smoking at age 18 or younger, and 85 percent started when they were age 21 or younger, according to a 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey.

Very few people start smoking after age 25, according to a 2012 Sur-geon General Report. The report indicates that 88 percent of adult ciga-rette smokers who smoke daily started by age 18. Similar to a student’s experience as a freshman taking the next step in their life, “this is a time in life of great vulnerability to social influences,” according to the report.

For some, like Brown, cigarettes become a form of self-medication and a routine that is tough to break at this time in a young adult’s life.

Maggie PundNEWS EDITOR

NEWS SPECIAL 07

do not respect their rights.“I kind of think it’s a little ridiculous,” Kelli Harmon, an early

childhood development major said. “I think it’s taking away a right.”

“The ban shouldn’t happen because it’s going to cause a lot of problems,” said sophomore computer information technology major Aaron Brzezinski. “Right now, it’s regulated. What about the staff members who are going eight hours a day without smok-ing?”

Brzesinski said the current smoking ban, where smoking is permitted in designated spots, would work if NKU did more to enforce it.

According to Debbie Patton, an NKU faculty member in Allied Health, nicotine replacement therapy products, such as nicotine gum, patches, lozenges and inhalers, will still be allowed on cam-pus after the ban is implemented. E-cigarettes did not make this list because they too closely resemble cigarettes.

“What we’re saying here is we respect [smokers’] rights and choice to smoke, but the decision made in January 2012 was to raise the environmental health and to respect all folks on cam-pus,” Patton said.

NKU will also have its own state-run quit telephone line.According to Maggie Gough, the assistant director of wellness,

NKU will be offering its students and employees free nicotine re-placement therapy and should be routed to the university’s quit line rather than 1-800-QUIT-NOW. The university’s number is 866-845-9139. The line will be available by Aug. 26, according to Waple.

NKU will also be offering face-to-face counseling and support through the Healthy Monday Quit Clinics that the Respiratory Therapy group is offering, according to Patton. The quit clinics will offer free respiratory scans to show smokers how much dam-age smoking has caused to their lungs. They will be held on Sept. 16, Oct. 21 and Nov. 18 in the Student Union from 11 a.m.- 1 p.m.

Many smokers trying to quit will relapse. Patton said that 70 percent of smokers will relapse seven to 10 times before success-fully quitting.

NKU’s Health Counseling and Prevention Services offers stu-dents counseling, and employees have access to speak to coun-selors through the Employee Assistance Program that Aetna, a healthcare company, offers, according to Gough.

Students can call Health Counseling and Prevention Services at 859-572-5650 or email them at hcp@nku.edu and faculty can learn more about the Employee Assistance Program at http://wellness.nku.edu/employee/services/eap.html.

For updates on the tobacco policy task force’s meeting minutes, visit http://tobaccofree.nku.edu/content/tobaccofree/minutes.html.

For more information on nicotine replacement therapies and cessation programs the Wellness Center offers, visit http://well-ness.nku.edu/tobaccopolicy.html.

Task force takes next step in ban

Students question tobacco-free policiesWhen returning home after a long day of classes, many students look

for ways to unwind and regroup before taking on the additional demands of their life in college.

While some students’ vice of choice to cope and comfort themselves might be heavily drinking or getting lost for endless hours in a video game, Brown chooses to relax and refocus in her “smoking spot” outside her home on campus.

“[Smoking] keeps me calm; it keeps me centered,” Brown said. “When I’m stressed out it helps me refocus.”

Many factors play into people’s decision to take that first drag. Genet-ics, peer pressure, advertising and anxiety disorders can all influence a person’s choice to smoke.

Brown’s addiction began while she was in high school as her way to help relieve the anxiety in her life. She feels smoking provides her with an alleviation from the stressors and concerns she experiences daily.

Smokers with a history of anxiety disorders have a more difficult time quitting smoking, according to a study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.

Megan Piper, a lead researcher for the study, believes smokers with anxiety conditions might find less success using quitting methods, such as nicotine patches or lozenges. These methods satisfy the chemical part of the addiction, but they do not address the emotional addiction compo-nent anxious smokers need to quit.

She is one of many young adults throughout the nation that picked up smoking as a teen and entered college addicted. Though people claim to smoke in order to reduce their mental health symptoms, many usually start lighting up before the problems that have them reaching for a ciga-rette arise.

In 2010, 24.8 percent of full-time college students between the ages of 18-22 were current smokers, according to 2012 Surgeon General’s Report on Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults.

Each day, about 3,900 youths that are under the age of 18 try their first cigarette; 950 of these children will end up regular daily smokers, accord-ing to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

The younger people are when they start using tobacco, the more likely and more heavily they will become addicted to nicotine, according to the American Lung Association.

Of adults who smoke, 68 percent started regularly smoking at age 18 or younger, and 85 percent started when they were age 21 or younger, according to a 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey.

Very few people start smoking after age 25, according to a 2012 Sur-geon General Report. The report indicates that 88 percent of adult ciga-rette smokers who smoke daily started by age 18. Similar to a student’s experience as a freshman taking the next step in their life, “this is a time in life of great vulnerability to social influences,” according to the report.

For some, like Brown, cigarettes become a form of self-medication and a routine that is tough to break at this time in a young adult’s life.

“[Quitting] is going to be tough,” Brown said. “I hope I can do it, really. But, at the same time, I don’t know how it’s going to work out because I am an anxious and nervous person and it helps me calm down.”

A cigarette provides a range of relief for smokers, from reduced tension to a raised sense of well-being, according to Dean Lillard’s “Smoking as Self Medication” research presentation.

Brown and other smokers react to the chemistry of the chemicals re-leased into the nervous system by nicotine. For a short period of time, the nicotine can work to mitigate anxiety and depression symptoms.

Those who take up smoking in response to a high stressor in their life, may find that it’s not easy to quit once that stress passes, according to the Cleveland Clinic. This stress relief tool becomes a psychological and chemical “crutch”; smokers might start out battling a source of stress with nicotine, but many end up fighting the nicotine itself through their addic-tion.

“I’m not one to seek help [through resources on NKU’s campus],” Brown said. “I’m one to do it on my own.”

Once the stress of college classes are over, she believes smoking will be easier to give up.

Research indicates that after 8 years following graduation, 75 percent of smokers that start in high school will still be using tobacco in some form, according to the American Lung Association.

Some student smokers skeptical about universi-ties’ tobacco-free policies

NKU smokers are not alone when it comes to being skeptical about how effective the new ban will be and how it will be enforced.

Since 2009, the University of Kentucky serves as an example of an-other university in the state where the students have been adapting to the tobacco-free campus transition.

One UK student smoker and junior forestry major, Josh Robinson, does not agree with the tobacco-free policy. It is “one of those bans that sounds good but doesn’t have any real consistency or logical sense,” ac-cording to Robinson.

“It is completely ineffective. All it does is make the whole being on campus [aspect] more frustrating. That’s not going to help anyone not smoke,” Robinson said. “I don’t really feel that I have lost a right because it’s not stopping anybody [at UK] anyways.”

Like Brown, Robinson picked up this habit in high school and has continued to smoke for different reasons, such as anxiety, pleasure and the influence of peers. He has not stopped smoking despite attending a school with a tobacco-free policy.

Also, similar to Brown, Robinson has questioned some of the tobacco-free policy rules NKU and UK share.

“The ban includes things like smokeless tobacco that doesn’t have harmful effects to people around you,” Robinson said.

Brown said NKU is also prohibiting products that are not harming any-one except the user. The students both question parts of the policy ban-ning products with no damaging effects for nonparticipants.

“I understand smoking affects other people more, like how they’d want to get rid of that,” Brown said. “E-cigarettes [or chewing] and stuff like that; I don’t think that should be a problem.”

At UK, the enforcement of the ban is not strong and people continue to smoke on campus without penalty, according to Robinson. He does not feel people will abide unless they start strongly enforcing the ban.

“[The policy] was a political gesture,” Robinson said. “[UK doesn’t] en-force it very well. They just wanted to be able to tell people, “Oh, we’ve got a tobacco-free campus.”

Both Brown and Robinson agree that designated smoking spots seem to be a better plan for universities.

“I think in general, most people would agree that having designated smoking areas on campus would work a lot better,” Robinson said. “It would help keep campus a lot cleaner. It would help keep smokers out of other people’s way.”

At NKU, Brown has witnessed smokers littering cigarette butts on cam-pus and understands the university’s position on the issue.

“I think that’s disrespectful, and I see a lot of people doing that,” Brown said. “If everybody would just respect the campus and pick up after them-selves, I think it wouldn’t be that big of an issue.”

An increasingly common college banAlthough individuals still have the right to choose whether or not to

smoke in the end, more and more universities are working to make it a harder habit for students to pick up, or keep.

“It’s becoming super common. Most schools [around the area] are al-ready smoke-free,” Brown said.

Universities have become common battlegrounds over tobacco use, or what the CDC calls the “single most preventable cause of disease, disabil-ity and death in the United States.”

As the state’s third public institution to adopt a tobacco-free policy, NKU joins at least 1,182 colleges in the country to take a step beyond des-ignated smoking areas and promote a campus-wide tobacco or smoke-free environment, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foun-dation. Around the area, the University of Cincinnati, Miami University, University of Louisville and University of Kentucky also enforce tobacco or smoke-free policies.

These policies aim to support a healthy university environment, pre-vent littering and combat the tobacco industry’s target on young adults entering stressful college atmospheres, according to an online message from NKU’s President Geoffrey Mearns about NKU’s Tobacco-Free poli-cy. The policies also work to deter those entering college from picking up an unhealthy habit or coping mechanism.

Tobacco products such as “traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes, chew, pipes, cigars, hookah or water pipe smoking, snus, [and] snuff” are pro-hibited on campus grounds, according to UK’s tobacco-free policy.

In 2011, Kentucky ranked number one in the nation with 29 percent of adults in the state who smoke compared to the national average of 21.2 percent, according to Gallup-Healthways Well-Being index.

Residents of Callahan Hall and future residents of the soon-to-be-completed Lakeside Terrace residence hall have found themselves a little too close for com-fort in these first weeks of the fall semester.

The renovation of Lakeside Terrace —formerly the Lakeside Place nursing home, purchased by the uni-versity in the 2013 spring semester—has temporarily placed approximately 130 NKU students in Lakeside Terrace, with residents in Callahan Hall, and with resi-dent assistants and peer mentors in the residential vil-lage.

Housing intentionally overbooks every year, in an-ticipation of students either not moving in or moving out within the first few weeks of the semester, ex-plained Arnie Slaughter, director of University Hous-ing.

“In previous years, a team has worked aggressively to identify spaces that become available due to in-dividuals just not showing up or individuals who go through the first week of classes, and they don’t be-come registered,” Slaughter said. This group also in-cludes students who may decide to leave NKU and re-turn another semester, Slaughter explained.

Slaughter said that things were no different this year.

“This year, we were extremely aggressive in terms of identifying...individuals who aren’t registered for classes beginning this summer,” Slaughter said. “We worked very closely with the orientation office to iden-tify first-year students primarily who did not show up for their orientation.”

Students who don’t attend their orientation are more likely not to move-in, said Slaughter. Housing can then cancel the assignments for students who say they are not moving in.

Managing reduced living spaceWhere most college students might find it a chal-

lenge to manage life and space in a two-person room, students in temporary housing situations have found themselves living three to a standard double room alongside permanent residents.

“I had all my stuff laid out, and half of it is still in my living room,” said McCaela Schreiner, a freshman business major and temporary Callahan Hall resident. “I didn’t know the size of the room or the layout….[Housing] told me what building, and that was it.”

Schreiner knew neither the names nor the number of roommates with whom she would live with until she moved in.

Finding adequate space can present a challenge for both permanent and temporary residents.

In some rooms in Callahan, two desks and only one four-drawer dresser are provided for the presumed two residents. Adding a third roommate to the equa-tion can put additional strain on all students involved.

“I found out everything when I got here,” said Mi-chael Schulte, an upperclassman geology major and temporary resident of Callahan Hall. Out of necessity, he fashioned a makeshift desk from a folding chair and the top of the bookshelf brought from home by one of his roommates.

“I have two suitcases…and my stuff is kind of erupt-ed and pooled around them,” Schulte said.

He keeps a third full suitcase stashed away under his bed, he said, to conserve space.

Resident life and temporary living ar-rangements

Some students, both permanent and temporary resi-dents, have concerns beyond the spatial strain. Many of the residents in temporary housing assignments are freshmen.

The first few weeks of college are often formative in a freshman student’s social and academic lives, said

Walter L. Wallace, an educator and executive director of the Globabl Logistics RoundTable for the Robinson College of Business at George State University.

Wallace, in his American Journal of Sociology publi-cation entitled “Institutional and Life-Cycle Socializa-tion of College Freshmen,” stated that “freshmen are quickly socialized into the prevailing college-student culture” within the “total institution” of on-campus life.

Without a permanent housing placement from the start of the year, some temporary residents could miss valuable opportunities to form friendships with fellow hall residents and set down roots in the first college residence hall they experience, Wallace said.

Navigating the challenges“There can certainly be some challenges with being

an individual in a temporary assignment. Just some of the traditional challenges of not being able to set up your new home immediately,” Slaughter said.

One of the ways that housing tries to alleviate these pressures is by placing residents in temporary assign-ments where they believe that permanent spaces will open up, such as Callahan Hall, which is the univer-sity’s most densely-populated residence hall, accord-ing to Slaughter.

“We really try our best to try to keep [these students] in those communities [where they’ve been placed tem-porarily,] since they have established that rapport with their floormates or resident assistants, or just the community in general,” Slaughter said.

Some students, such as Schreiner, feel that hous-ing’s efforts to integrate these students into residence life have been successful.

“I’m not really afraid of moving to another dorm,” Schreiner said. “The only thing I’m afraid of is moving myself…. When I first applied [for housing], I didn’t even list Callahan for an option because I didn’t want to be off-campus. But now that I’m here, I love it.”

Schreiner, who said she was originally going to be temporarily placed in Lakeside Terrace, plans to re-quest a housing change for permanent residence in Callahan Hall. She is unsure of her future permanent residence hall assignment.

ARTS & LIFE Thursday, August 29, 201308

For students who studied a foreign language in highschool, it was more than likely a new experience.

There can be benefits involved when you know more than one lan-guage, according to Gisèle Loriot-Raymer, associate French professor.

Loriot-Raymer said,”[Learning more than one language] is really...a wonderful goal.” She said that be-coming fluent in another language “makes your mind more flexible.”

It has been proven by neuroscien-tists that those who speak more than one language are much more men-tally nimble and flexible, explained Loriot-Raymer. She also stated that it helps with memorization.

People who speak more than one language are attractive to employ-ers, Loriot-Raymer said. “Languages added to an application open up lots of opportunities,” she said. “You can use languages, of course, in busi-ness...whether it’s French or Spanish or Japanese or German.”

Approximately 21 percent of US citizens speak a language other than English in their home, according to the 2010 Census.

“It is a mistake to think that one language, for example, English, is the solution to global communication,” Loriot-Raymer said. “We have to be bilingual, trilingual; we have to be polyglots [someone who speaks sev-eral languages].”

However, learning a language is not just about memorization.

“Learning a language is not just learning an alphabet and sounds and so on. It is learning a culture, it is learning a new way to look at the world,” Loriot-Raymer said.

Irina Vorobyeva, a graduate stu-dent originally from Russia studying computer information technology, said, “It’s nice to be able to speak with people from cultures, like Eng-land and different countries.”

Silvana HillCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Abigail HullSTAFF WRITER

Being bilingual offers various benefits

Temporary housing poses numerous challenges

PHOTO BY MAC PAYTON

Three residents are currently living in this room in Lakeside Terrace. Some residents are temporarily living in rooms in Callahan Hall and Lakeside Terrace with more people than the rooms are intended for.

An associate professor in NKU’s political science, criminal justice and organizational leadership departments has pub-lished his first book to help people understand and navigate political media.

Dr. Michael Baranowski wrote his book, “Navigating the News: A Political Media User’s Guide” to give students and the general public a better understanding of the way the me-dia covers politics.

Baranowski said he’s been seeing a change in the way his students consume media for years and even when people had good information, most people weren’t getting the whole story. He wanted to give people a better under-standing of politics without having them “spend a ridiculous amount of time doing it.”

“Depending on the sort of media they consume it can have a huge effect on how they understand politics and how they see issues,” Baranowski said.

Jennifer Taylor, who graduated from NKU in 2012 with a double major in mathematics and political science, is a for-mer student of Baranowski and said she really liked him as a professor because she could tell he was interested in what he was teaching.

“I was really interested in how policies were made and what they were based on,” Taylor said. “And I got the sense that he really knew what he was talking about when it came to policy.”

Taylor said Baranowski approached her after she took a class with him and invited her to take an independent study on political news and media. One of the requirements for the independent study was to assist him with his book. She read a few books to get a general sense of the topic and then searched for examples from the media to explain what he was trying to include.

“Whether it was a blog, or a commercial, or an article in

The New York Times, I would search for specific examples of something he was interested in,” Taylor said. “It was actu-ally a way for me to apply what I had learned about politics in the news.”

Taylor not only helped with research, but also read through the book when it was in its draft stage along with another student, according to Baranowski.

“[They] gave me some perspective and ideas and pointers from a student point of view,” Baranowski said. “I think that was very valuable.”

Baranowski said one of the main messages of his book is that people need to look to a variety of different sources in

order to get a “broader perspective on the world.”“All human beings have certain preconceptions and re-

porters are human beings too,” Baranowski explained. “Ev-eryone has certain incentives that are going to shape how they report a story.”

Taylor, who is looking forward to reading the finished book, said she remembered from the draft that the book can help people overcome bias and give them a general idea about politics and how to be better media consumers as well.

“It gives [readers] ways to improve [their] perception of politics in the news,” Taylor said. “It’s important to get your hands on as much information as you can and decide for yourself, rather than going based off what you hear and someone else’s opinion.”

Baranowski hopes readers of his book will be more skep-tical of political media in the future and explained people are often convinced they understand how politics work but are often looking at a “limited part of a bigger picture.”

“It’s not so much that a lot of people are wrong, but that [the story is] incomplete,” Baranowski said.

Shamima Ahmed, political science, criminal justice and organizational leadership department chair said Ba-ranowski was a good instructor and she appreciated how he tries to blend his teaching and research together, which

may have helped with his book.“He’s able to use his teaching experience to conduct re-

search and vice versa,” Ahmed said.Baranowski said he’d been wanting to do this project for

about 10 years, and a few years ago, the university gave him a sabbatical which gave him the time he needed to work on it. Now he’s relieved more than anything else to have the book published.

“It’s so good to see a tangible result of my work,” Ba-ranowski said.

The book was released on July 31 and is available on Ama-zon.com and the NKU Bookstore.

Ed 52, Issue 2 ARTS & LIFE 09

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KODY KAHLE

Baranowski wrote his book with the intention of explaining politics in a less time consuming way. Copies can be bought on Amazon.com and in the NKU bookstore.

Erin MullinsSTAFF WRITER

Professor pens book, covers chang-ing face of political media coverage

Recent graduate joins Peace CorpsFor many NKU students, summer’s end meant heading back to

classes. But for recent NKU graduate Samantha McKenzie, the end of the summer meant preparing to move to Central America.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in biology accompanied with minors in Spanish and chemistry she chose to join the Peace Corps.

McKenzie spent early August stocking her backpack, but not with school supplies. Instead, she was deciding what essentials she would need for the next two years of her life, limited to 100 pounds.

“I wanted to do something for myself,” Mckenzie said. “I am finally a graduate and I feel like this is the best time to go.”

Her thoughts of joining the Peace Corps came as early as high school.

For 27 months, she will be devoting her time as an envi-ronmental education promoter in Nicaragua, co-teaching in two primary schools. McKenzie’s tasks will include commu-nity research activities, classroom management, gardening techniques, and compositing.

During her time at NKU, McKenzie worked as a camp counselor for school-aged children at the NKU Early Child-hood Center.

“[Samantha] was always one of the most adored counsel-ors,” said Doug Staton, senior elementary education major and former Early Childhood Center summer camp counsel-or. “The kids always wanted to be around her.”

McKenzie worked several consecutive summers with Sta-ton and other NKU student workers, ensuring a summer

filled with both learning and fun for school aged children from the community.

“If it weren’t for my experiences at the [Early Childhood Center,] I would not have pursued child development,” Samantha said. “It im-pacted my desire to work with children and reflecting back, I believe it was meant to be.”

The NKU science department also played a role in McKenzie’s as-piration to use applied science in underdeveloped countries.

“Samantha was always interested in the bigger picture, of how sci-ence impacts our world,” said Charles Acosta, associate professor in the department of biological sciences. “She wanted to integrate her social concerns with the biological sciences to solve pressing environ-mental problems.”

While at NKU, McKenzie gained experience through lectures, lab-oratories and field trips, which provided her with technical skills, as well as global perspectives. By joining the Peace Corps, she can finally take action in helping communities with their environmental chal-lenges.

“It is rewarding to see students developing such empathy and go-ing out in the world to contribute to the well-being of those in most need,” Acosta said. “I believe we gave her the best education possible, and in return, she has made us proud.”

McKenzie is “not worried about roughing it,” but said that leaving her family, boyfriend and cats behind is a weighty decision. She is excited to begin her journey and to gain a lifelong experience while in the tropics.

To follow Samantha’s experiences, visit her blog at http://gallopin-toandcompost.wordpress.com/ .

Amber Coakley STAFF WRITER

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AMBER COAKLEY

SPORTS Thursday, August 29, 201310

ports

This season, NKU’s men’s and women’s soccer programs will be the marquee sport during the fall, and are looking to make an impact in the Atlantic Sun Conference and in Division I soccer as well. According to the coaching staffs, the teams are both looking to build upon their hard work and produce on-field success.

Men’s Team:The men’s soccer team has played one

game so far this season: an exhibition against the University of Kentucky on Aug. 25. The game ended in a 1-1 draw and the team believes it is a good start to what could be a strong season for the Norse.

“UK is very quick and athletic,” said men’s soccer Head Coach John Basalyga. “Because we are not as athletic as other teams, we try to outwork them, and I think doing that helped us stay in the game [against UK] and come out with a tie.” The team also played UK last season, and that game ended in a 2-2 tie.

This season, the men’s team has a slate of high-profile games against the likes of Dayton, Cincinnati, Marshall, Bowling Green, and Wright State.

“We have some very big games this sea-son,” Basalyga said. “We are heading up to Dayton on Sept. 6, and it doesn’t get much bigger than that.”

The team will also play at UC on Sept. 18, at Wright State on Sept. 20, and at Mar-shall on Sept. 22.

In addition to non-conference games, the Norse will also face several marquee opponents in the Atlantic Sun this season. Florida Gulf Coast, Mercer and East Ten-nessee State will all be tough tests for the team this year, according to Basalyga.

“Those have been the premier teams in the conference for the past three or four years,” Basalyga said.

Sophomore goalkeeper A.J. Fleak thinks the team can make some noise this season.

“We just need to come out of the gate quicker this year,” he said. “Last year we

started 0-6, and that just killed us. If we can play like we did [against UK], I think we will be good.”

The men’s soccer program has also been adjusting to NKU’s recent move to Division I. But coach Basalyga still believes the pro-cess is the same

“It’s still about finding quality athletes and adjusting to playing against a whole new level of competition,” Basalyga said. “It’s not easy, but we’ll get through it.”

Junior defenseman Ian O’Reilly also believes the move to Division I can bring great things.

“The competition is obviously going to be better, and I think that going to push all of us on the team to work harder,” O’Reilly said. “Every week there’s a different start-ing 11, and we are all pushing ourselves to get better because no one has a guaranteed spot.”

Women’s team:Meanwhile, NKU’s women’s soccer

team is looking to bounce back from a 6-11 record last season and aim for success at the Division I level. Women’s Soccer Head Coach Bob Sheehan believes that a suc-cessful season can be achieved even if the record doesn’t turn heads.

“Our goal is not based on the number of wins that constitutes a successful season but just trying to get better every day and playing at the highest level we can play at,” Sheehan said.

Sheehan also emphasizes the impor-tance of teamwork and good sportsman-ship.

“I think the future is bright for our team,” he said. “We strongly believe that if you do things the right way, good things will come. We want our players to conduct themselves with integrity and class both on the field and off the field as well.”

The women’s team is looking for two senior forwards to help lead the team this season.

“We are looking for Megan and Allison to step up this year,” Sheehan said. “Me-gan was named 2nd-team All-Conference last year and Allison has great pace and acceleration. They have been exceptional leaders and have invested heavily in the program as we have moved from Division II to Division I.”

So far this season, the women’s soccer team is 0 wins, 1 lose and 1 draw with up-coming games against Morehead State on Sept. 6 and Xavier on Sept 20. There will also be games against Florida Gulf Coast, Mercer, Jacksonville and Kennesaw within the A-Sun.

“Florida Gulf Coast will be a tough team, as they have won the conference for the past 3 years,” Sheehan said. “They were the best team we played against in the Atlantic Sun last season.”

Brad BishopCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Soccer teams strive to make impact in A-Sun Conference

MEN’S SOCCER: WOMEN’S SOCCER:

Junior defenseman Ian O’Reily goes for the ball at the first men’s soccer game of the season against the University of Kentucky. This year marks NKU’s second year transitioning into Division I athletics as a part of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

PHOTOS BY KODY KAHLE

HOME SCHEDULE HOME SCHEDULE

• 9/29 NKU v. Bowling Green @ 1 p.m.• 10/11 NKU v. North Florida @ 7 p.m.• 10/21 NKU v. IUPUI @ 7 p.m.• 10/23 NKU v. East Tennessee State @ 7 p.m.• 10/26 NKU v. Jacksonville @ 7 p.m.• 11/2 NKU v. Mercer @ 7 p.m.

• 9/1 NKU v. Tennessee Tech @ 12 p.m.• 9/8 NKU v. Canisus @ 12 p.m.• 9/15 NKU v. Youngstown State @ 12 p.m.• 10/4 NKU v. Florida Gulf Coast @ 7 p.m.• 10/6 NKU v. Stetson @ 12 p.m.• 10/19 NKU v. Lipscomb @ 7 p.m.• 10/25 NKU v. USC Upstate @ 7 p.m.• 10/27 NKU v. East Tennessee State @ 12 p.m.

With the transition to Division I, many of the as-pects of the university have been changed or at least tweaked in some way. One department that has had a lot of changes occur is the athletics department. From recruiting rules to new opponents and a whole new con-ference, the athletics program has shifted entirely from what it was as a member of Division II.

In NKU’s first year of Division I, the sports teams as a whole performed relatively well. Men’s cross country finished sixth out of 10 teams in the Atlantic Sun Con-ference and the women finished eighth out of 10; that is also their rankings going into this season.

“The men’s team has a relatively young team with only one senior,” cross country Head Coach Steve Kruse said. “The guys have come in this season in really good shape from the summer and they are ready to go and it

won’t take more than a couple meets to get in our stride. On both men’s and women’s teams, we are looking to improve on our initial ranking.”

The men’s cross country team had a breakout sopho-more runner last year in J.J. Webber. He is individually ranked second as a returner in the A-Sun.

“It’s looking really good for the cross country team this season,” Don Owen, sports information director, said. “When we can compete in postseason, everyone is going to continue to compete better and recruit better. Everyone has to be a little patient in transition to D-I.”

Volleyball also had a record-breaking season last year. The team won 25 games within the conference and D-I. They are the first team nationwide to ever win that many games while in the transition from D-II to D-I, according to Owen.

“We have a tough preseason schedule; we’re playing Michigan and Purdue,” volleyball Head Coach Liz Hart, said. “It will prepare us for the A-Sun. We’re currently

ranked sixth out of 10 teams in the conference. We’re looking forward to seeing our competition, learning and progressing throughout the season.”

The men’s golf team is ranked ninth out of 10 teams and the women’s team is ranked tenth in the preseason standings in the A-Sun. The women’s and men’s ten-nis teams are both ranked ninth out of nine teams. The men’s soccer team is ranked seventh out of nine teams, and the women’s is ranked eighth out of 10 teams.

One of the biggest changes the teams are having to face is traveling more, which has resulted in a cost in-crease, according to Owen.

“The teams are traveling much further obviously,” Owen said. “In D-II we went everywhere by bus, but now we are spending some time in the airport. There are a lot of great things being a part of this D-I confer-ence, but travel is such a huge difference; the teams are going to be flying and going to different places. It’s a big change for everybody.”

Ed 52, Issue 2 SPORTS 11

Brook CliffordSPORTS EDITOR

Teams embrace ongoing changes in D-I transition

Scan this QR code to view the composite sports schedule for the 2013-14 year

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VMAS 2013

My mother is dying; one thick cigarette-drag of black smoke at a time. And, I can’t do anything about it.

When I was eight, I would sneak into the pan-try before school and write messages with a black ball-point pen on my mom’s plethora of Marlboro Ultra Lights 100’s. I’d write little notes up the stems about how much I loved her, with messages like, “please quit for me” and “someone <3’s you”.

When I got home from academic team prac-tice, she’d be on the back patio chain-smoking and drinking cups of freshly brewed Folgers by the pot-- worrying about bills or relaxing after a long day’s work.

Fast forward 13 years and not much has changed, at least as it pertains to her smoking. And to make it all worse, just last week, the doctor called to tell us that my mother has emphysema.

We were heartbroken… But at the same time, why wasn’t I surprised?

I’ve asked my mom a thousand times why she smokes. “Why do you do it?” “Why did you start?” “Is it really worth it?”

“It’s an addiction,” she’d reply. And, she is right. It may be addicting, but I can’t help but think, “is life itself not as equally addicting?”

She’d also say, “I started back when I was 15 or 16. Back then… when it wasn’t even bad for you.”

Except there, she is definitely wrong. It’s always been bad for you. And always will be.

Even when she thought it was “cool.” Even when it was her crutch that “allowed” her to suc-cessfully raise three children and climb the corpo-rate ladder like she has.

Even when it killed her mom. Then her dad.I understand no one is perfect. People have

vices. It’s a free country. “No one can tell me what I can and cannot do.”

I recently met a student who uses smoking as a way to cope with anxiety. She only smokes on campus when she is secluded from everyone. She always cleans up her cigarette butts. It’s just what

she says is “the little thing” she does to “make it through the day.”

And to be honest, if that’s what she needs to succeed, let her do it. As long as it’s not hurting anyone else, that’s fine. Except when it allows my mom to aid her own demise.

And in fact, that’s what cigarettes do. The Cen-ters for Disease Control estimates that more than 440,000 deaths occur annually just from smok-ing and secondhand smoke.

So when I heard last year that NKU would be transitioning to-- not just a smoke-free but-- a tobacco-free campus, I was happy, but also felt a mixed reaction.

I was ecstatic at the idea of NKU changing to promote a healthy environment. Afterall, if we are an educational institution, why would we still facilitate an environment that almost “promotes” this unhealthy behavior.

However, I also love my freedoms and hate people telling me what I can and cannot do. Is this just another attempt to mold the people down into “perfected beings?” I mean what is perfect anyways? Everyone has a vice… what’s next? No Starbucks?!

Regardless of what we all may think, the tobac-co-free ban has passed and will be implemented in just a few more months.

And I realize some of you may be unhappy about it. I obviously still have mixed feelings on the matter.

But either way, listen to this last one thing.Despite of how cool you think smoking makes

you look, how much you think it helps you get through your difficult days, please think deeply about what you are doing or choose a new vice.

I love my mom more than I can express. She has been there for me through everything. I don’t know how much longer I have with her, yet she still continues to smoke against doctors’ orders.

And, I am sure someone out there feels the same way about you.

So consider this one of my last little messages, not just to my mom, but to each and every one of you: “please quit for me” cause “someone <3’s you”.

Kevin SchultzEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Freedom to smoke or freedom to choose:

A difficult topic, a more difficult decision

Fahad Turk - SeniorEnviromental Science

“I’m against it. I suggest they put smoking shelters next to buildings. I’m not

going off campus to smoke a cigarette.”

Kat Wolf - JuniorSculpture

“I don’t think my pro-fessors are going to be

very cool with it.”

Jordan Parker - JuniorCriminal Justice

“I support it, but I do agree [smokers] have rights on cam-pus. They pay to go to school

here too, so if they don’t want to walk off campus [to smoke] they

shouldn’t have to.”

How do you feel about NKU’s transition to a tobacco-free campus?

Norse Poll C

ompiled by Kevin Schultz &

Maggie Pund

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