Inside

Section A
Hazier by the day; and Some Scroogenomics

CD Reviews
Them Crooked Vultures and Cadence!; and around the town

UT rallies down 19
UT rally stuns No. 20 Dayton, Rockets lose to Wright St.; and analysis on the Granderson trade.

Todays weather

Independent Collegian IC
The
Thursday, December 10, 2009

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Arts and Life, B1

Sports, B4

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Serving the University of Toledo since 1919

UT adds further conditions to KDR hazing sanctions

Chapter has roughly one week to appeal UT sanctions for hazing violations; specifics of violation remain unknown
By Joe Griffith Editor in Chief

New trustees await approval

Gov. Strickland appoints three Toledo community leaders to UTs BOT; still waiting for official approval from Ohio Senate
By Randiah Green News Editor

Issue 29

Roughly two weeks ago, the University of Toledo and Kappa Delta Rho National Fraternity agreed on sanctions imposed upon UTs chapter of KDR for violating the national organizations hazing policies; and now the chapter faces additional

sanctions for violating the hazing policy in UTs Student Code of Conduct. The terms of the sanctions agreed upon by UT and the national fraternity include suspension of the KDR chapter for one year, followed by an additional year of probation. During this time the
KDR, Page A4

One quality the three new members of the University of Toledo Board of Trustees have in common is a strong commitment to education and the community, according to UT President Lloyd Jacobs. I think that these are all good appointments and all three of them will add intellect and diversity, Jacobs said. Its a good diverse group. To have three new trustees on the board is kind of a big deal and Im confident that this is going to work out fine. On Friday, Dec. 4, Governor Ted Strickland announced the appointments of Joseph Zerbey, president and general manager of The Blade; Baldemar

Joseph Zerbey

Linda Mansour

Baldemar Velasquez

Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee AFL-CIO; and Linda Mansour, managing attorney of the law firm Linda Mansour-Ismail, to fill three

vacant positions on the BOT. Stricklands appointments will officially be trustees following approval from the Ohio Senate. These individuals have

contributed greatly to their communities in the past and I believe they will serve the University of Toledo and the
Trustees, Page A3

CAS forum sparks debate between faculty and students

By Randiah Green and Vincent D. Scebbi News Editor and Assistant News Editor

Phrases such as opening the floodgates and inviting the playground into our classrooms are used as analogies referring to students being admitted from urban school districts into the College of Arts and Sciences. The use of these analogies by one CAS faculty member has sparked concerns

of racism at UT among some students and faculty members. In his post on the Arts and Sciences College Forum entitled, Hub of Mediocrity: Inviting the Playground into Our Classrooms, David Nemeth, a professor of geography and planning, criticizes recommendations on how to make the CAS in the top tier ranking among arts and sciences colleges nationwide.

Nemeth said recruiting and retaining academically unmotivated students from urban areas is counterproductive when trying to bring the CAS into top tier rankings. The floodgates are already opening up: the discipline problems and anti-academic attitudes that have already trashed the academic aspirations of our urban public primary and secondary schools are apparently soon to be invited, accommodated and formally implemented into our own [CAS] curriculum, scholarship, teaching/learning modalities, space and graduate studies, Nemeth said in his blog post.

Opening the Floodgates

According to a mass e-mail sent anonymously to the UT community on Saturday, titled More racist filth from the
Forum, Page A8
Joe Griffith / IC

Student Government President Krystal Weaver (right) and SG Vice President Rachael Wise (left) voice their concerns over a recent blog post on the College of Arts and Sciences Forum during Tuesdays Arts and Sciences Council meeting.

Joe Griffith / IC

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Have thoughts about the CAS forum debate? Leave them on our Web site.

Seasons first snowman

Jeremiah Gaswint, a sophomore majoring in marketing and professional sales (left), Lisa McGrath, a freshman majoring in business (center) and Mackenzie Miller, a freshman majoring in pharmacy, build a snowman in Centennial Mall during the snow storm Tuesday evening.

Health Science Campus to house $25M biorefinery

By Vincent D. Scebbi Assistant News Editor

With the help of a $20 million federal stimulus grant, a local company is working to produce diesel fuel in a way that is less harmful to the environment at the biorefinery on the University of Toledos Health Science Campus. On Friday, Dec. 4, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that Red Lion Bio-Energy LLC will receive the federal stimulus grant to expand Synterra Fuels, the joint

venture between Red Lion and Pacific Renewable Fuel Inc. The concept of the venture would be a couple of things, said Fred Deichert, the chief financial officer for Red Lion. First, the reduction of [carbon dioxide emissions] by consuming biomass instead of refining oil. Biomass is any agricultural material. In theory, we could take all leaves in the Toledo area and consume that. [The grant] will give us a stable financial base to take us from the experimental phase to the commercial phase, Deichert said. It helps us do in three years what we could normally

do in five or 10 years. According to Deichert, Red Lion has worked with UT for almost two years to efficiently convert biomass into syngas synthetically made gasoline. We have been at the University of Toledo since February 2008, converting biomass to syngas, he said. The goal of the venture, Deichert said, is to produce diesel fuel without producing as much carbon emissions. Glenn Lipscomb, a professor in chemical and environmental engineering, said there are UT students working with Red Lion.

A former graduate student, Noureen Faizee, currently works for Red Lion and we hope engineering co-op students will be hired as the company grows, Lipscomb said in an e-mail interview. Students in our group, Balakrishna Maddi, are working with Noureen on a lab-scale model of their process to optimize their technology, said Sasidar Varanasi, a professor of chemical engineering. According to Deichert, Red Lion converts biomass into syngas by speeding up the process
Biorefinery, Page A3
Graphic by Nick Kneer / IC

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Independent Collegian additional sanctions add to the specific conditions of the chapters suspension and probation periods. Basically, those conditions just severely limit their ability to be active on campus, Patten Wallace said. According to Martinez, the KDR chapter will only be allowed to participate in one intramural sports activity and one social event per semester. The chapter also lost recruitment privileges during the upcoming spring semester; however, Martinez said the chapter will be allowed to resume their recruitment efforts during the fall 2010 semester. The general idea is to limit their social events, to limit their ability to do things that are a privilege to being in a Greek organization participating in Dance Marathon, SongFest those things are a privilege, Patten Wallace said. The sanctions were announced to KDR chapter on Nov. 17, following three weeks of a joint investigation of the chapter conducted by the national organization and UT. All new pledges as well as all current student members of the fraternity were interviewed, Patten Wallace said. Pursuant to the state open records law, Ohio Rev. Code Ann. sec. 149.43 to 149.44, an IC reporter filed a request for documents related to the hazing investigation Nov. 12. The documents requested are education records pertaining to students, which are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, said Jonathan Strunk, media relations manager at UT. Strunk said a formal statement from UT would be released explaining legal reasons as to why the documents could not be released with individuals names redacted, however, at the time of publication that statement was not available to the IC. Patten Wallace and Martinez were unable to comment on the specifics of the hazing incident; however, Patten Wallace said there are individuals in the UT community who feel the chapters punishments were too harsh, while others feel the sanctions werent severe enough. Again, we feel that were sending the message that hazing wont be tolerated, she said. We dont want to destroy the organization, we want to reorganize it so that they can be effective. According to the Student

The

Thursday, December 10, 2009 Code of Conduct, the chapter has 72 hours to appeal the sanctions brought against them; however, after a member of the KDR alumni association contacted Patten Wallace to discuss the sanctions, she extended the appeal deadline. I explained to him that I would not negotiate the sanctions, but I would discuss with him and clarify the sanctions, she said. As of Tuesday, Martinez said the chapter has not tried to appeal the decision, but they still have roughly one week to submit one. Im confident that we have done the right thing, Patten Wallace said. In order to prevent future hazing incidents among student organizations, Patten Wallace said the Office of Greek Life is initiating a new policy requiring fraternities and sororities to submit a new member education plan. Anything they have planned for students who are pledging for the organization will have to be in this plan and any activity thats not in the plan will then be considered hazing, Patten Wallace said. Everybody knows up front this is what they have to do, so it helps the students who are trying to get into the organization know what the requirements are and it helps us be able to track. Martinez said if fraternities or sororities plan off-campus parties, where new members will be in attendance, those events would technically be considered social events; however, she referred the question to Greek Life Coordinator Cecilia Rivera, who is currently out of town for a conference and scheduled to return Friday. The new member education plan is just one step were taking to make sure that hazing doesnt go on and students are safe because thats our first and top priority, Martinez said. We have to be fair and consistent and we have to look at everything that happened and say Whats the best thing for our students? And the best thing, we believe, is to work with this organization, to reorganize, to re-educate and to become a better organization on our campus.

Joe Griffith / IC

The Kappa Delta Rho fraternity house in McComas Village.

KDR A1 From Page

chapter will undergo reorganization, according to an email interview from Joseph Rosenberg, executive director of KDR National Fraternity. The national organization also expelled two KDR alumni from the fraternity for their involvement in hazing, and the president of UTs KDR chapter was asked to step down, according to Interim Dean of Students Michele Martinez. In addition to those sanctions agreed upon by UT and the national organization, the KDR

chapter is also facing separate sanctions for violating the Student Code of Conduct at UT, according to Vice President of Student Affairs Kaye Patten Wallace. We imposed additional sanctions from the universitys Student Code of Conduct because we felt this is very serious and we wanted to extend the message that hazing will not be tolerated, Patten Wallace said during the Board of Trustees Academic and Student Affairs Committee meeting on Monday. According to Patten Wallace, the terms of those

Online and Active

Have thoughts about the KDR hazing situation? Leave them on our Web site.

Joe Griffith / IC

Snow-covered campus
Centennial Mall blanketed in snow during the snow storm Tuesday night.

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