ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES
Volume 170 No. 2
Miami university — Oxford, Ohio
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2025
Senate Bill 1 anticipated by faculty to have little impact on climate ededucation at Miami SARAH KENNEL GREENHAWKS EDITOR
SENIOR AVA SUAREZ HELPS REFRESH THE MURAL INBETWEEN CLASSES. PHOTO BY ANNA REIER
1 year later: Oxford community continues to rally around bee mural ANNA REIER MANAGING EDITOR Joe Prescher has always been an artist. He’s taught high schoolers in Iowa and Texas and college students at Miami University, as well as selling his work professionally. So, when the opportunity arose to permanently
In this issue
place his work in his hometown, he did not hesitate. “They’re hungry for public art,” said Prescher, the mastermind behind the mural located in the alley between CJ’s and Mac & Joe’s. “The community reaction has been amazing. Everybody’s been in here since this started.”
SPORTS EDITOR
Hefner highlights: Students and staff steward natural history at Miami - page 12
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY
Miami’s annual Citizenship and Democracy Week to have Pulitzer Prizenominated play from Broadway - page 5
OPINION
Survivors and educators are fighting the same battle - page 10
SPORTS
Preview: Miami football hits the road once again to face Rutgers - page 6
missed,” Prescher said. “I’m adding in a couple more bees, cleaning up some of the wear and tear and finishing areas that were left undone.” Since he started, Prescher has recruited all sorts of new artists. Some, like Natalie Natusch, paint for a career. CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
Men’s basketball releases conference schedule, awaits non-conference slate finalization KETHAN BABU
GREENHAWKS
Prescher started the mural last August, with the initial creation wrapping up in November when the weather turned. Now, with the help of students, community members and other professional artists, he is back for only one week to finish up the mural. “I’ve been waiting all year to get back in here and finish up the stuff I
When the University of Florida Gators won the NCAA men’s basketball championship on April 7, fans were met with a seven-month wait until the 2025-26 season began. In late August and early September, teams across the country announced their full schedules, giving supporters a glimpse at what can be expected come November. While the Miami University RedHawks have announced their conference schedule, their non-conference schedule still awaits finalization, something that head coach Travis Steele said is a good problem to have. “Scheduling has been tougher this year,” Steele said. “When I first got here, there was a line from here in Oxford all the way to Cincinnati to play us, and now nobody will play us
… We’re significantly better. Everybody’s using these analytical numbers to schedule now, and we’re in this weird area where teams are told not to really play us, which has made it difficult.” Scheduling for the RedHawks is more challenging largely because of the success of the program last season, Steele said. Miami finished its 2024-25 campaign at 25-9, its best record since 1998-99. The team made it all the way to the Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship, its first appearance since 2007, where it lost by two points to the University of Akron Zips. Steele said the team celebrated its success in the spring, but the RedHawks quickly wiped their memories of last season in preparation of the new year, knowing that they can do more. “It was a big step forward from where we’ve been,” Steele said. “I’ve
said this before, [we’re] obsessed with trajectory and not necessarily the result. We had a good year, but we want more. How do we continue to grow? Where are we going from here?” Despite losing three players to the transfer portal, Steele said Miami’s retention is at an all-time high. Starters Eian Elmer, Peter Suder and Antwone Woolfolk all return, as well as standout players Evan Ipsaro and Brant Byers, who averaged 8.4 and 6.9 points, respectively. Similar to previous seasons, Miami relied on its young players in 2024-25. Byers and freshman guard Luke Skaljac averaged 17.6 and 13.9 minutes, respectively, and both played significant roles in the team’s shooting success, especially from range. CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
Miami’s annual Citizenship and Democracy Week to have Pulitzer Prize-nominated play from Broadway TAYLOR STUMBAUGH CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY EDITOR To celebrate the founding fathers signing the Constitution in 1787, from Sept. 15 to 22, Miami will host a series of on-campus events and programs aimed at exploring the legacy of the Constitution, the political and legal system and the rights and responsibilities of members of a pluralistic democratic society, according to a press release. Since 2005, under federal law, all universities that receive federal funding must commemorate the anniversary of the Constitution being signed on September 17. However, John Forren, the executive director of the Menard Family Center for Democracy, said Miami goes above and beyond its required programming.
“The idea of what became Citizenship and Democracy week was the idea [that] this is really an opportunity for us to get our community thinking about what it means to live in a democracy, what it means to live in a democratic society and what our rights and responsibilities are as members of that society,” Forren said. “So it was based on a sort of faculty interest in using it as a learning opportunity.” Forren added that the Menard Center coordinated the events with the intent of staging a broad range of programs to reach audiences beyond political science and history. Some of the free events in Oxford include an appellate hearing by the Ohio Court of Appeals in the Armstrong Student Center on Monday, Sept. 15. For Constitution Day on
Sept. 17, there will be a United States District Court naturalization ceremony, where roughly 100 new citizens will be sworn in by a federal judge, and later that day, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner will hold a public lecture. “We're hoping people just come to watch [the naturalization], because it's just an amazing thing to see,” Forren said. “... The other thing I would say to come see [is the] court appeals hearing. What I keep stressing to people is this is not a simulation. This is not a mock trial. This is a real court with real judges, attorneys and real cases. And so it's a chance for students who are interested in law, for instance, to see what this really looks like.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
In spring of 2025, Senate Bill 1 (S.B. 1) sent the Ohio world of higher education into a frenzy. Signed into law by Governor Mike Dewine, the bill impacts several aspects of higher education. Most notably, it eliminates Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in public universities, implements academic requirements, such as the centralized public posting of course syllabi and restricts professors from taking a stance on several “controversial topics” named in the legislation. One of these “controversial topics” is climate policy. Professor of biology David Gorchov teaches Principles of Environmental Science (IES 275), a course that heavily discusses both climate science and climate policy. Despite campus-wide changes from this legislation he said he believes Miami University’s climate education will remain largely unchanged. “I don’t think it’s going to change it very much,” he said. “It’s not going to change the way I teach environmental science.” This is due to the key distinction between “climate science” and “climate policy” in the legislation. The scientific consensus that the climate is changing and warming due to increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases primarily caused by human combustion is not considered controversial – only specific policies addressing this phenomenon are classified as such. “Climate science is not a controversial scientific topic, so I’m not going to treat it as such,” Gorchov said. Elise Radina, associate provost for faculty affairs, also said it is unlikely that S.B. 1 will impact climate education at Miami, as the bill does not restrict the topics that can be included in academic courses. Instead, faculty are expected to encourage students to come to their own conclusions on “controversial” topics. “Creating a classroom environment that fosters healthy discussion and the exchange of ideas does not mean that the introduction of challenging or controversial material should be curtailed,” Radina said in a statement to The Miami Student. “The expectation is that faculty will create the opportunity for students to express their intellectual diversity and reach their own conclusions on ‘controversial beliefs and policies.” Gorchov said he has always encouraged students to discuss climate policy amongst themselves, read different perspectives and come to their own conclusions, and he will continue to do so. He often has students read different articles relating to a specific climate policy, or uses current events as a way to initiate conversation on policy. “Miami remains committed to freedom of expression, as required under our institutional Campus Free Speech policy,” Radina said in a statement to The Student. Gorchov said his biggest concern with S.B. 1 is the way it manages university activities. He said this level of oversight will cost money, keep administration busy and give faculty extra work. “The state was already governing Miami and other public universities, but to have these specific measures… it’s just state government overreaching and micromanaging,” he said. J.D. Wulfhorst, director of the institute for the environment and sustainability, said the university is working to be proactive about meeting S.B. 1 requirements. One requirement is the centralized posting of course syllabi. He said software will be piloted this year to ensure the system is running smoothly by the time it is required. Wulfhorst said that he does not anticipate S.B. 1 to bring cumbersome additions to his job or curtail classroom discussion. However, he said discussion around the bill has caused cultural shifts in the field and led to staff anxiety. “It’s a doable task, but it’s also a changing culture, because as faculty and instructors, we’re not used to thinking that way,” Wulfhorst said.
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