ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES
Volume 170 No. 12
Miami University — Oxford, Ohio
FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2026
Consider us friends: Miami band to release first EP
Hammerin’ Harrison: Tommy Harrison hopes to lead the RedHawks to another MAC title BENJAMIN LUEBBERS THE MIAMI STUDENT
tice student, to the band, because the two girls were both members of The Miami Misfitz, an all-female a cappella group. Long says becoming a member was simple and quick. “There’s no need to audition or anything,” Long said regarding the boys. “We’re not that formal. You can just start next semester.” During the 2024-2025 school year, Adams, Moretti, Young, Cornell and Long performed together, gaining more and more traction at each show. Crowds at Brick Street went from five people arriving early to stand front row, to crowds of 30 or more arriving early.
The Miami University RedHawks baseball team enters the back half of the season looking to defend the Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship they won in 2025. After climbing to the one seed in the MAC tournament last year, right fielder Tommy Harrison has emerged as one of the team’s biggest catalysts. Harrison played at St. Edward High School in Cleveland, where his powerful bat drew attention with a .420 batting average and a .988 onbase plus slugging as a junior. Harrison racked up the second most hits for his team despite missing ten games. Harrison would make the roughly four-hour trek down Interstate 71 to Oxford, Ohio for his collegiate career. In his freshman season, he showed flashes of potential, driving in 23 runs while posting a .231 average and .402 on-base percentage. In 2024, however, Harrison suffered a knee injury, which held him out for an entire season. Harrison continued to show up and stay involved by helping coach first base. That season was also when current head coach Brian Smiley and his staff came to Miami.
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FRIEND OF A FRIEND PERFORMS AT BRICK STREET BAR. PHOTO PROVIDED BY FRIEND OF A FRIEND
ZOEE ROBINSON
THE MIAMI STUDENT Friend of a Friend (FOF) began just as the name suggests — friends of friends joining together to jam some tunes. The original four members, Stephen Griffith, ’24, Miles “Griz” Adams, ’25, Michael Moretti, senior marketing student and Cooper Young, senior architecture student, launched the idea of formally playing together in the spring semester of 2023. Griffith, Adams and Young were in the same fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), but different years, and Moretti met Young through a mutual friend on their first year spring break trip.
In this issue
The boys said they just got to talking and bonded over their love for music. From that point on, they consistently practiced together at the Tau Kappa Epsilon house or in the garage of their Uptown house, Bleü Dream. In October 2023, the band played their first gig, opening for Thumbtack Mechanics and Under High Street, two successful Miami student bands, at an Interfraternity Council (IFC) tailgate before a home football game. Moretti credits the tailgate as the reason they became an official band. He says they needed a name to perform, and a friend of theirs (they can’t recall who) suggested Friend of a Friend, because they all knew each other and were somewhat friends.
Miami's Jewish community tightens security amid nationwide antisemitic threats IVY KLEINMAN
ASST. PHOTO EDITOR
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY
Miami esports program set to lose all funding - page 3
OPINION
We owe an apology to our women’s basketball team
And so, FOF was born. At the IFC tailgate, the band connected with Ben Cornell, a junior arts management and arts entrepreneurship student, fellow TKE member and their soon-to-be bass player, as Griffith would graduate later that year. For the rest of the 2023-2024 school year, FOF played fraternity parties and gigs at Oxford bars such as O’Pub, Corner Bar and Brick Street Bar. In the spring of 2024, Claudia Diaz, a former primary education student, also performed with the band for one semester before she graduated. During her time with the band, Diaz introduced Lydia Long, a now senior political science and social jus-
Following an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue and rising antisemitic threats nationwide, Sarah Shmoel, executive director of Hillel at Miami University, emailed students, parents and community members March 13, reaffirming her commitment to the Jewish organization’s safety. “We are in regular communication with both the Oxford Police Department and Miami University Police Department and have asked them to increase patrols around our building and during events,” Shmoel wrote in the email. Hillel’s team participates in annual safety training and secures their building with access only available through intentional entry. Additionally, cameras monitor the building 24-hours a day. “We follow the principle we all know well: If we see something, we
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say something,” Shmoel wrote in the email. Shmoel said she has not seen any backlash toward the Jewish community on Miami’s campus and feels that Miami and Oxford are safe places for students to be Jewish and to show their Jewish identity. Incidents at Miami remain far less frequent than what Jewish communities face at other universities and nationwide. “As a Hillel director, seeing other Hillels and what they experience is very, very hard, and it makes me very sad personally,” Shmoel said. “However, I also have to recognize how lucky I am to be the executive director at Hillel at Miami, because it is such an amazing place for the Jewish community.” Jewish organizations have long operated under security protocols that most other campus religious groups do not need. For concerns extending into the residence halls, Shmoel said incidents must first be reported through the university’s Office of Community Standards.
“Hillel is much more than what is happening in our world,” Shmoel said. “We are a place where students can connect to share a meal. They can be themselves Jewishly or just themselves as a person, openly in our space.” Rabbi Yossi Greenberg, co-director of Chabad at Miami, is optimistic about the Jewish community in Oxford. Chabad is an all-inclusive organization built around outreach and inclusion, focused on strengthening Jewish life rather than engaging in political battles, Greenberg said. Their mission does not change in the face of antisemitism. “I will not call somebody out as anti-Semitic, just because I know people say that very loosely,” Greenberg said. “For years, I haven’t said the word because I always like to believe that people don’t have it in their heart, but recently I started using it, and I started feeling a little uncomfortable.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Booming business: Miami’s secret side hustlers SPORTS
Midseason review: Miami Softball fields its stride, dialed on a Super Regional appearance - page 6
CULTURE
“This Music May Contain Hope” convinced me that hope is still out there - page 9
ZEPLYNN WHITMORE THE MIAMI STUDENT
EVELYN DUGAN
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR Junior primary education major Georgia Palko worked at Bagel and Deli, but was looking for some extra cash. After calling her dad with a bright idea, she moved forward with her plan to sell sweet treats on Valentine's Day. With around $50 worth of strawberries, a college house kitchen and a side hustler mindset, she sold 300 strawberries to mothers and lovers. “I’ve grown up doing lemonade stands, doing whatever it is — walking dogs, mowing lawns — doing whatever I can to start my own business of some sort,” Palko said. “When I got to Miami, [my dad] was like you need to find something that people don't have or people need at school.”
ELLIE DAVIS PAINTS A FRENCH TIP NAIL DESIGN ON A CLIENT IN HER DORM ROOM. PHOTO BY IVY KLEINMAN
Palko said she thought of chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels because everyone loves them. She advertised to consumers with a Canva-made graphic on Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and GroupMe.
After Palko informed Aldi of her plans, they readied 17 packs of strawberries for her. CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
‘Changing Climate, Changing Communities’ sparks conversation and celebrates local art SARAH KENNEL
GREENHAWKS EDITOR Music and conversation filled the Oxford Community Arts Center during the “Changing Climate, Changing Communities” art exhibition’s opening ceremony March 13. Organized by Engaging for Climate in Oxford (ECO), the exhibition features pieces from paintings to sculptures, all aimed at creating a local dialogue around climate change. Katie Feilen, director of Project Dragonfly, said ECO first came up with the idea to begin hosting art exhibitions around 2018, when climate change was beginning to emerge as a major conversation within the broader public sphere. She said faculty members across campus wanted to figure out a way to communicate the implications of the data they were seeing to the local public. “Most change happens not through a rational, data driven [reaction] but a more heart-focused, emotional reaction,” Feilen said. “We wanted to open space for the broader Oxford community to connect with climate change and share their own personal perspectives and stories through art.” This year’s exhibition was the fourth show since ECO crafted the idea, and the art call uniquely aimed to encourage pieces that inspired positivity and a call to action. Feilen said that many of the pieces still had a heaviness to them, in content, tone and size. She said one of her favorite pieces, “The Flood” by Tara Trueblood, contained this sense of heaviness and crisis while still hinting at hope. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12