Response to Lauren Swanson's "Greek Affiliation of Administrators"

   In Lauren Swanson's blog about the events of Greek Week, she discusses the possible problems with the affiliation of certain administrators to fraternities and sororities on campus. When I read Lauren's blog, I realized I was conflicted about her argument in some ways. I completely agree that it frankly doesn't look good for Carol Nicholson and Jon Duraj to openly proclaim their affiliation with fraternities and sororities on campus. But the reason I am conflicted with this is that as young people looking for mentors, we need to be able to relate with the role models/administration set before us by Wittenberg. I can easily see a Greek affiliated student who is sitting in Carol Nicholson's office facing disciplinary charges or attempting to get a social approved thinking, "What does she know about me or my sorority? She was never in one." I think it is perfectly ok for Nicholson and other Greek affiliated members of Wittenberg's faculty and staff to openly state that they are a member of the Greek community. It is part of their identity and I think hiding that fact would indicate they were ashamed to be a part of the Greek community, which would make us all look bad frankly.
   Now, what is questionable is if those faculty and staff members should announce which fraternity/sorority they are members of. This one is tricky because of the special circumstances that surround some members of the faculty and staff. There are a good amount of alumni who work at Wittenberg, Jon Duraj being one and Mallory Roth being another, who were members of fraternities and sororities here on campus. It would be impossible to get rid of that knowledge of which fraternity or sorority they were affiliated with, especially since the two employees are young and people still remember their time here on campus as students. Obviously, the reason why this knowledge could cause problems and controversies would be for the possibility of favoritism between fellow brothers and sisters from the administration. I think that since Wittenberg hired these folks, they are trustworthy. I know that our faculty and staff are awesome people and would never stoop to a low level such as that.  That all might be blind faith but I know also that if the university got any kind of feeling that that sort of unfairness was occurring, those faculty and staff who violated that privilege would definitely be removed.
   That being said, I do agree with Lauren to say that the particular question posed to the participants in the competition asking for the affiliations of Greek administration members was very wrong. The reason being is for the favoritism aspect that was previously mentioned. But I think that it would be a perfectly acceptable question to ask if a student could list off faculty and staff members who participated in the Greek community in their years at college because there ain't no shame in being Greek affiliated. At least, I hope not...

Response to Ciara Colbin's "Is the HPER Center doing too much?"

    When Ciara Colbin discussed the HPER Center changes in management, in guidelines, and in employee expectations, there wasn't much background given on the reasons for these new modifications. I would love to shed some light on this because I don't believe it was talked about much around the university.
    Last spring, a Physical Plant employee discovered that there was a man unaffiliated with Wittenberg University living in the HPER Center and apparently had been living there for quite some time. Maigan Larsen, HPER Center Coordinator, was in her first year employed with Wittenberg University when this information was acknowledged. The immediate reaction to this knowledge was to establish some sort of check-in for the safety of students. Thus began the routine checking of student ID's for all visitors to the HPER Center.
     So there's the background to the new changes. Now to answer the question if the HPER Center is doing too much. I would call myself a sort of live-in visitor at the HPER Center as well, especially during my season and have been watching the development of these new changes with great interest.
     While I definitely agree that the HPER Center changes are annoying and seem over the top, there are specific reasons that Larsen is implementing these with such vigor. The reason that the student workers are being restricted and held to a stricter standard is because safety at the HPER Center is still very much an issue. The uniforms that the workers have to wear now are not unlike the uniforms that the student workers in Recitation have to wear, not to mention the uniforms allow the workers to stand out in a crowd for athletes to find them quickly if needed to get entry into a locker room or training room.
    Another big plus about the changes is that the student workers are asked to make rounds of the HPER Center once every 30 min to make sure everything is still locked up and secure. This can be somewhat beneficial when you need a key into your locker room and the worker happens to be walking by. But it can be a disaster if the student worker is on a round and you have to run around the HPER to chase him/her for the keys.
    Now I know what you are thinking because upon first glance, this all seems very excessive. But (as much as I hate to say this) it still may not be enough. Last week, the volleyball shed in the arena was broken in to while people were working, swiping people in, and making rounds. Apparently someone took a hammer to the combination lock and gained access to a ton of volleyball equipment. As far the team could tell, nothing was taken but the incident was reported to Larsen. Additionally, we had someone break into our locker room that same weekend who messed with our stuff in our lockers, wrote on the wipe-off board, and rearranged the locker room. Security is also breached routinely when the Upward Bound students are on campus: during my sophomore year, we had someone go through all our backpacks and take a total of $200 in cash. These are only incidents happening to the volleyball team so I have no clue about the other sports teams and if they have experienced any issues in security. However, I imagine that this crime pattern is common especially with the locker rooms that the swim teams have to share with the overall community. One last point I would like to bring up here is that bigger universities and colleges also have this type of security. I know Wittenberg is not a big school in lots of ways but we do need to recognize that Wittenberg is growing. I think some changes are necessary right now and should continued to be expected/embraced if the changes will assist us in the long run. 
    The new changes to the HPER Center are definitely annoying because we are not used to the new regulations. But in my opinion, I believe they are a necessary evil. Larsen is also talking about how to help the situation a little better and provide more security with a swipe system, not unlike the swipe system that the library has for study tables.

Flashing Lights

   Wittenberg University has many quirks that make the campus and college unique. One such oddity would be the erratic street lamps that light the sidewalks around the university's grounds. Every Wittenberg student, at least once in their college career, has been walking past a street light on campus and had that particular light extinguish itself, plunging the traveler into darkness. The question in the back of these students' heads is, "Why on earth is this happening?"
    There are several theories that students have invented to explain this phenomenon. One such supposition is that Wittenberg has become the home of Albus Dumbledore. The infamous headmaster is said to be residing in the Hogwarts-like Ferncliff Hall and apparently enjoys roaming Witt's campus with his deluminator, quietly snuffing out the street lamps for secrecy.
    Another theory is that the university has incorporated our motto into the very architecture of campus. Since "Having light we pass it on to others" has been a very fundamental theme in all that Wittenberg embodies and stands for, it stands to reason there is a possibility that the Board of Directors decided to take this concept very literally. Some students believe that the reason the lamps go off right when they pass by is because the street lanterns are passing their light onto the traveling students.
     Other less common theories include that since Wittenberg is in trouble financially, the lights around campus are short circuiting and, with the budget cuts, the university does not have enough funding to fix them. There's another theory that the flashing on and off is old Ezra Keller's ghost winking at students. Additionally, some students believe it's the ghosts from the cemetery next door.
      Although these theories all have some merit, there is an official explanation for the lighting spasms. A couple of years ago, through Wittenberg's Sustainability Task Force, Physical Plant was able to install light retrofits in several of the outdoor lights on campus and in some of the buildings as well. One of the goals of the light retrofits is to conserve energy and, thus, the street lamps are on timers that occasionally trigger on and off all around campus. In this way, some energy can be conserved on a sporadic/casual level.
     Regardless of the official explanation of the fickle lights, the other theories from students have not been debunked yet. So whenever those lights shut off on you as you pass by, give a slight nod to good old Ezra Keller in the shadows or salute Dumbledore the best you can. And above all, never forget to pass that friendly light on to others.