ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES
VOLUME 151 No. 1
MIAMI UNIVERSITY — OXFORD, OHIO
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2022
In this issue
Miami sees a record number of applications for incoming first-year class
Tired of paying so much for textbooks? These methods can help
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY Miami community anticipates the government’s plan for canceling student debt - page 4
GRAPHIC BY HANNAH POTTS
SHR-HUA MOORE
ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR ENTERTAINMENT Our favorite movies and TV shows for back to school - page 6 FOOD Sundial is dead, and I’m not too mad about it - page 7
AS MIAMI WELCOMES STUDENTS BACK TO CAMPUS THIS SEMESTER, IT'S ALSO WELCOMING A FIRST-YEAR CLASS OF STUDENTS FROM ALL 50 STATES AND 120 COUNTRIES. PHOTO BY MEGAN MCCONELL
META HOGE
SPORTS Pressure builds as field hockey aims for sixth straight title - page 8 OPINION Letter from the editor - page 10 HUMOR Do's and Don'ts for Incoming Freshman - page 12 CAMPUS RESOURCES Helpful resources for both freshman and returning students - page 13 TMS STAFF BIOS Get to know the wonderful people making this paper! - page 14
STAFF WRITER Miami University is getting ready to welcome the class of 2026 after a record number of applications. Brent Shock, vice president of enrollment management and student success, said more than 31,500 high school seniors submitted an application to Miami. Shock said the Office of Admissions is excited about this record number. “It speaks to Miami’s strength as an institution, it speaks to Miami’s brand as an institution, and I think it’s a really great thing,” Shock said. Out of the applicants, about 26,000 were admitted, and as of Aug. 15, 4,136 have enrolled. Shock said the number of students enrolled will most likely de-
crease due to students that may decide to unenroll. “Even though we have students that have said they’re coming to Miami, there’ll be some that change their mind here in the next few days,” Shock said. On the fifteenth day of the fall semester, the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness will take a snapshot of the number of students who enrolled and that number will be used to set the number of students in the class. Out of the students currently enrolled, about 2,500 are from Ohio, a little over 1,500 are out-of-state U.S. residents and around 100 are international students. This year’s applicants came from all 50 states and more than 120 countries. Bethany Perkins, direc-
tor of admissions, said the Office of Admissions has admitted the highest numbers of students of color, first-generation students and underrepresented minority students in Miami history. “We’re really excited about the number of students that have been admitted to Miami who identify in those populations,” Perkins said. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Miami has not required students to submit ACT test scores with their application. Out of the scores submitted (by about 40% of all applicants), the average was a 27. The average high school GPA of applicants was a 3.88, which is up from the average of last year’s incoming class at a 3.84. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
QB Brett Gabbert Hopes To Build On Last Season’s Success Gabbert’s play at the end of the schedule gave the ‘Hawks a chance for a MAC title game berth. If the RedHawks had beaten Kent State in their final game, they would have been in. Unfortunately, his 405 passing yards and five total touchdowns were not enough, as he threw a game-losing incompletion during a twopoint try in overtime. Thankfully, the RedHawks season ended on a high note with a Frisco Football Classic bowl win over the University of North Texas. To help Oxford bring home its first bowl win since “I JUST GOTTA GO OUT THERE AND BE MYSELF,”GABBERT SAID IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE MIAMI STUDENT. PHOTO CREDS: ZACH REICHMANN 2010, Gabbert, the game’s MVP, went 22/31 most passing yards in a two-game STEVEN PEPPER for 230 yards and two scores. span in school history. CONTRIBUTER Going into 2022, Gabbert plans to In a close road loss at Ohio, Gabbuild on last season’s success. Miami University quarterback bert recorded a career-high 55 pass“I definitely made some strides in ing attempts and fi nished with 492 Brett Gabbert had a successful 2021 certain areas of my game that were campaign. In the ten games he start- passing yards (third-most in school better than my freshman and sophhistory) and fi ve touchdowns. In the ed, he threw for 2,648 yards, 26 omore year,” Gabbert said. “Kinda touchdowns and only six intercep- following week, he was surgical in a looking forward to building off some blowout home victory against Buff ations. of those things from last year and tryHowever, Gabbert probably lo, connecting on 75% of his dimes to ing to get better throughout this upwouldn’t have been honored with a tally 351 yards and four touchdowns. As the leader of the offense, Gab- coming season.” Third Team All-Mid-American ConThe way Gabbert prepares for ference (MAC) selection if it was not bert understands what it means games did not change from his first when he plays well. for his absolute tear at the end of the “It’s always awesome to throw for seasons. The junior credits his age as conference schedule. Although the a lot of touchdowns [and] throw for the biggest reason for his on-the-field RedHawks split the win/loss totals improvements. down the stretch, Gabbert put up his- a lot of yards, especially as a quarter“Not too much change in my rouback,” Gabbert said. “Your job is to toric numbers. tine per se,” Gabbert explained. “I The four-game stretch started control the game. The ball is in your think my maturity, just me getting hands 90% of the time.” with two back-to-back dominant older [and] the experience I’ve had performances where he threw for the
playing in a bunch of different games. It has a big impact on myself and our offense. Especially as guys get older, we don’t get as rattled when things don’t go our way.” Gabbert wants to play the best he can in every game to lead his team to victory. To have a more successful season, he aims to limit the turnovers. “My job as a quarterback is to take care of the football, and minimizing turnovers is a key part to winning,” Gabbert said. “I would like to throw zero interceptions this year. That would be a big goal of mine.” All eyes are on Gabbert to take the next step in his development this season. He is among the players on the pre-season Maxwell Award watch list, an honor given to the most outstanding player in college football. Additionally, he was voted as the pre-season First-Team All-MAC quarterback. Gabbert doesn’t allow the pressure to get to him. “There really is no added expectations or added pressure,” Gabbert said. “I just gotta go out there and be myself. I think, at the end of the day, everything will take care of itself.” Although Gabbert would love his stat sheet to shine bright, he is a team-first player. The St. Louis, Missouri native values team wins over individual dominance. “I always try to be a team guy,” Gabbert explained. “I love to win, but I absolutely hate to lose. I would love to go 12-0, go to the MAC championship, [and] go to a bowl game.” A MAC championship is not an unrealistic goal. Last season, the ‘Hawks were a completed pass away CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
College is expensive, and textbooks are no exception. With college textbook prices rising more than 1000% from 1977 to 2015, some students believe the prices of textbooks are a bad deal at best, and at worst, completely ridiculous. To deal with these high prices, students at Miami University have used different methods to save money. Some are smart, and some are risky, some legal and some not. Here are three methods for saving money on textbooks that some students have used to great effect. Method One: Find a better deal For junior microbiology major Ethan Boley, skipping the campus bookstore and buying directly from the publisher is the way to go. “For my genetics class, I have to buy the fifth edition of a textbook. [The campus bookstore] has it available for about $160 or $111 used,” Boley said. “But I can just go to Amazon or straight to the publisher, and instead of those prices [the textbook] is just $92.” Boley said he uses this method to save money on many of his required textbooks but cautioned that it’s good to check with the professor before buying from a different website. “The danger [of buying from another website] is, of course, that the book that you’re buying isn’t exactly the one on the Miami Brick and Ivy website and doesn’t have the exact access code or something,” Boley said. “You almost want to wait to ask the professor and be like, ‘Hey, this is what I’m buying, is this okay?’” Ben Bross, a junior mathematics major, tries to find used editions of textbooks whenever he can. “Buying used is always a good option,” Bross said. “I also double-check if a professor is like, ‘You need this [specific] edition,’ and if not, I always try to buy older textbooks with the same exercises in them.” For getting used books, Bross also recommends skipping the Miami University bookstore. “Take a few seconds to look past the Miami bookstore,” Bross said. “A good website is Thriftbooks.com, and Amazon sometimes has decent deals on used textbooks.” In an email to the Miami Student, the Miami Ecampus bookstore wrote that they “can’t speak on other company’s [sic] pricing and policies” regarding the prices of textbooks on the online store. There are also multiple websites where students can compare prices, such as Slugbooks or Bookfinder. Method Two: Get books for free Some students aren’t satisfied with saving a few dollars on their textbooks. Instead, they become pirates. Internet piracy is a crime defined as using the internet to illegally copy content that is copyrighted by someone else. While some websites, like project Gutenberg, are fair use, others such as z-library are generally not. A senior computer science major who preferred to remain anonymous said he saved a lot on textbooks last semester employing this method. “I don’t know if I bought a single textbook last semester,” he said. “I just looked up the ones I could find online — the strategy is always to just search up the name of the textbooks and you do .pdf after, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2