The Northerner Print Edition - January 27, 2010

2 Edition 45, Issue 3

NEWS

VIEWSA second take on Greek Life:Straightening out the SGA representation assumptions.

A&EPursuing the paranormal:NKU student communicates with the other side.

COVER STORYA Northerner investigation: Was Dennis Chaney’simpeachment justifi ed?:Former Vice President of Student Governmentargues he was wrongly impeached.

8 & 9

5, 6, & 7

4 & 10

11 & 12

Protecting student rights:2010 brings new Student Government Association Constitution.

3January 27, 2010

The NorthernerUniversity Center Room 335Highland Heights, KY 41076Editor in Chief: (859) 572-6128News & Sports: (859) 572-6677Features: (859) 572-5859Advertising: (859) 572-5232Fax: (859) 572-5772

E-mail: [email protected]

furtherdetailsEntire content is copyright of The Northerner and may not be reprinted without prior con-sent. Views expressed do not represent those of the administration, faculty or student body.The Northerner is considered a designated public forum. Student editors have authority to make all content decisions without censor-ship or advance approval. The Northerner staff respects the right to a free and open dialogue as allowed under the First Amendment.

PRINT EDITOR-IN-CHIEFMark Payne[[email protected]]

WEB EDITOR-IN-CHIEFEmily Teaford [[email protected]]

PRESENTATION EDITORKarli Wood[[email protected]]

VIEWS EDITORHeather Willoughby[[email protected]]

A&E EDITORJeremy Jackson[[email protected]]

PHOTO EDITORCharlotte Etherton[[email protected]]

COPY EDITORSEmily Christman[[email protected]]

Zach Grady[[email protected]]

Chad Hensley[[email protected]]

ADVISERGayle Brown[[email protected]]

AD MANAGERWilliam Fisher[fi [email protected]]

northernerstaff contactinformation

EDITORIAL CARTOONISTPatrick Delaney[[email protected]]

ASST. PHOTO EDITORCassie Graves[[email protected]]

STAFF WRITERSMichael Willis[[email protected]]

Alex Owsley[[email protected]]

Brandon Barb[[email protected]]

Jesse Call[[email protected]]

Vern Hockney[[email protected]]

WHAT’S INSIDE

SPORTS 13 & 14Norse look to turn around:Team struggling in Great Lakes Conference.

COPY DESK CHIEFBetina Kemker[[email protected]]

SPORTS EDITORDrew Laskey[[email protected]]

EDITORIAL ADVISERRyan Clark[[email protected]]

WEB CONTENT MANAGERJim Clark[[email protected]]

Here you go folks: For all of you savvy recyclers out there, the staff at The

Northerner has decided to come up with alternative uses for your Northerner issue each week. This week: make a hat.

In the last issue of The Northerner, an article was published concerning the rep-resentation of students in the Student Government Associa-tion and the question of how much is too much Greek in-fl uence. Viewing this piece as both a Greek and a Northern-er staff member, I felt a myriad of emotions. I appreciated the balance of the sources within the article, and I truly believe it was approached in an unbi-ased manner.

However, for some rea-son, I still felt a stab of disap-pointment of the portrayal of Greeks from Dennis Chaney’s eyes.

There are more than 15,000 students at Northern Ken-tucky University. According to Greek Advisor Kim Vance, four percent of all matricu-lating students, both full and part-time, are Greek. Because only full-time students are eli-gible to participate in Greek Life at NKU, Greeks make up six percent of the full-time stu-dent population.

Granted, these numbers do not match up with the Stu-dent Government Associa-tion’s makeup of 51.5 percent Greek students. It is assumed that having 17 of 33 SGA po-sitions fi lled by Greeks is an unfair representation of the student body at Northern. I feel strongly that this is an unfair representation of those members whom are not part of Greek Life in student gov-ernment.

Are we concerned about the number of gay and lesbian members represented by the student senate compared to the student population? And what about the division of age, ethnicity, genders? Has anyone felt that Activities Programming Board, athletes or commuter students have a skewed representation in

SGA? The Northerner is con-cerned with these things.

What is damaging, alarm-ing or unfair about the repre-sentation of Greek students in student government? Sure, Greeks make up just more than half of the senate. Sure, it’s a skewed representation if you look at it that way — just look at like this: not all Greeks are the same.

These men and women rep-resent different demographics of Greek life. Greek senators all have varying platforms, views and concerns for this university. If two people are both involved in Greek life, even if in the same chapter, they are two different people with different ideas, beliefs, leadership qualities and voic-es.

It is unfair to assume that these 17 senators feel differ-ently from the remaining 16 just because they are involved in the same type of organiza-tion. These 17 do represent the same demographic in the sense of Greek vs. otherwise, but that is only one way that students at NKU differ from each other.

If students are dissatis-fi ed with the representation among the NKU senators, they should vote accordingly. Better yet, run for some-thing. Greeks make up most of the few students within our campus community who actually step up. They should be praised, not criticized, for their level of involvement.

Truly, it is not surprising that the number of Greek students in SGA makes it what it is. The main reason a student would join a Greek Letter Organi-zation would be to become more involved on campus. This person would also seem more likely to involve them-selves in other aspects of stu-dent life. Most Greek organi-

zations boast the involvement of members in a slew of other campus organizations. This is because Greek Life promotes making the most of your col-legiate years by associating yourself around campus and adopting the will to learn new things and meet new people.

Leadership skills are devel-oped within Greek organiza-tions as well. This promotes not only standard involve-ment within other organiza-tions, but also the ability and drive to lead others. Chapters encourage their members to

attend leadership develop-ment seminars to take on re-sponsibility inside and outside of their organizations. It has been alluded to that Greeks are unable to handle the com-mitment of more than one or-ganization, especially SGA. Is a Greek in SGA any different than an athlete in SGA? Can someone who works full-time be trusted to apply themselves to SGA? College students are at a stage in their lives where taking responsibility and man-aging priorities are becom-ing most important. Students

must fi gure out how to juggle many aspects of their lives in college, just as someone later in life must fi nd a balance be-tween family, work and free time.

Greek life is a healthy, edu-cational and skill-building or-ganization on campus. It isn’t this big monster trying to tear up our campus. Greeks are proud of their community and of their individual chapters.

For more information on Greek Life at NKU, visit http://nku.edu/campuslife/greeklife.php.

SPECIAL VIEWS


A second take on Greek LifeStraightening out the SGA representation assumptionsHeather Willoughby Views Editor and Phi Sigma Sigma member

Charlotte Etherton/Photo Editor

Greek benches align University plaza. The benches show the presence of Greeks on campus.

NEWSProtecting student rights2010 brings new Student Government Association ConstitutionVern HockneyStaff writer

With the new year came a new constiution for the Stu-dent Government Associa-tion. The goal of the new con-stitution is “to protect and promote the rights of North-ern Kentucky University students (and) to democrati-cally represent the student body and its opinions to the institution,” according to the SGA constitution. But what can students do if they feel their rights are not being pro-tected or they are not being represented properly?

One answer to this question is found in Article VIII of the Constitution. It is entitled “Student Initiative, Referen-dum, and Recall.” The article gives students the right to act outside SGA by proposing or repealing acts, amending the SGA Constitution or remov-ing a member of SGA.

Professor Bruce McClure says that this gives students a lot of power. “What you’re doing is making a pub-lic statement on what your populace wishes to occur. It is basically a request to the Board of Regents in the form of popular vote.”

McClure goes on to explain that it is “a democratic pro-cess that gives us an opinion, as students, to the Board of Regents who take that into consideration.”

So when would you have to hassle with the article in-stead of allowing SGA to act in their advisory role?

“There might be times that SGA is out of touch with the students and that is when you would use (it),” Dr. Fred Rhynhart said.

One example of SGA pos-sibly being outside of the popular opinion is the re-cently discussed smoking ban resolution before SGA. The resolution proposes to the Board of Regents (BOR)

that NKU become a com-pletely smoke-free campus. Recent articles published by The Northerner have gener-ated arguments from both sides, and it is clear that there is a rift between students on

the matter.Many students have of-

fered alternatives to the campus going smoke-free — such as fi nes for smoking out-side the designated areas or erecting enclosed structures

for smokers. However great these ideas may be, they are only comments on a Web site until the students — smok-ers and non-smokers — voice their opinions to the SGA.

Steve Meier, associate to

the dean of students, reminds students that SGA meetings are open-session and if they have any issues with legisla-tion or any legislation they want to present that is the time for students to come and voice their opinions.

Few, if any, students are present at any regular SGA meeting. Although SGA makes decisions in the name of the student body, there is room for any student to dis-cuss concerns. So why aren’t students showing up to speak up at the meetings? Rhynhart says that “you (NKU) have student disinterest in student government.”

Dr. Shauna Reilly brings the impact of disinterest home when she said that if students are not involved in their government, things will “happen to you, not with you.” Without a strong inde-pendent student voice pres-ent at the SGA meetings, the smoking ban and other resolutions that cause rifts in the student body are likely to pass. If students attend, particularly a large number of students, and voice their opinions, SGA will have to reconsider passing the reso-lutions.

When all else fails, how-ever, students still have the option to act on their own behalf through direct democ-racy under Article VIII of the Constitution.

The process is fairly straight forward. Students must fi rst have three percent of the cur-rent student body sign a pe-tition on the issue. It is then submitted to the appropriate authority and placed before a vote of the student body. If the issue wins a majority vote, it must be approved by

Archives

The many students of NKU are encouraged to attend SGA meetings. They are held Mondays at 3:30 in room 104 in the Student Union.

See RIGHTS on page 7

5January 27, 2010

Jesse CallStaff writer

ArchivesThe Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Cincinnati is just one of the organizations NKU participates with in order to benefi t our community.

Signing up to help outIncreased student involvement helps fundraising

The rallying cry ‘now more than ever’ has now been an-swered. Despite the recent downturn in the local econo-my, Northern Kentucky Uni-versity employees and stu-dents contributed more than $45,000 to community agen-cies throughout the Cincinna-ti/Northern Kentucky region as part of the 2009 Combined Campaign, an annual fund-raising drive coordinated by the university. Contributors were given the option of do-nating the funds to two dif-ferent organizations that dis-perse money to nearly 200 local charities: Community Shares and the United Way.

The United Way portion

of the campaign exceeded its goal by $3,836.96, raising nearly $36,000 that will go directly back into the com-munity. It also saw about a $6,000 increase over last year, according to Leshia Lyman, Northern Kentucky director for the United Way of Greater Cincinnati. A goal was never established for the Commu-nity Shares portion of the campaign, but NKU raised $11,002.86 for those agencies; however, in past years, NKU has raised between $15,000 and $25,000, according to Mary Beth King, executive di-rector for Community Shares.

“It was a great campaign and I was absolutely pleased

with the effort,” said Kim Luse, executive assistant to the president for special proj-ects, who helped to coordinate the campaign.

Fundraising was not the only goal of the campaign this year. According to the event’s coordinators, it was also aimed to seek involvement of 100 percent of the NKU community. In order to reach out to more of the commu-nity, including students, there were several events held over a one-week period including a $2 lunch, a balloon gift ser-vice, and raffl es. The campaign raised about $3,500 in result of these efforts.

Luse said there is no way to

know how many people con-tributed a dollar here or there for the campaign or how many became aware of the agencies and their good work through promotions like the ‘sea of balloons;’ but, she said she was pleased with student in-volvement in the campaign.

Some students even came to the rescue of the balloon gift campaign as interest grew throughout the day. They vol-unteered to fi ll and tie bal-loons.

“We had an awful lot of par-ticipation,” said Luse, adding that this campaign was more inclusive of the entire campus than the previous fi ve years.

Although the 2009 cam-

paign has offi cially come to an end, ideas are already fl ow-ing for the 2010 campaign. In the meantime, Luse is work-ing on more ways to recog-nize current service efforts by employees and students and develop more, particularly in response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti. She said the university is working on sharing information with stu-dents on how to get involved through e-mail alerts and information tables. There’s also another option, and it’s the easiest option too — she said students can text “Haiti” to 90999 to make a $10 dona-tion to the Red Cross through their cellular phone bill.


NEWS

Selected police reports from NKU

Monday, Jan. 18No reportable activity.

Tuesday, Jan. 199:56 a.m. Laptop computers

stolen from office in Steely library.

1:47 p.m. Laptop computer damaged by another student

when her desk fell on it in Landrum Hall.

Wednesday, Jan. 20

No reportable activity.

Thursday, Jan. 21No reportable activity.

Friday, Jan. 22No reportable activity.

Saturday, Jan. 23

2:56 a.m. Argument between couple; female sub-ject intoxicated and assaulted two individuals in Norse Hall.

2:40 p.m. Alcohol intoxica-tion in a public place at the Bank of Kentucky Center.

4:24 p.m. Subjects mak-ing threatening comments to

another individual at the Bank of Kentucky Center.

6:30 p.m. Two subjects arguing over sports and one punched

the other in Norse Hall.

9:00 p.m. Two-vehicle accident in Norse Commons parking lot.

No injuries reported.

Sunday, Jan. 24

4:50 p.m. Driver attempted to drive around fire gates and lost control and slid

backwards near Woodcrest Apartments.

NEWS

7January 27, 2010

RIGHTS from page 5

Five senators were sworn

into SGA on Jan 25. They were Amber Billiter, Lau-ren Johnson, Adam Acree, Andrew Cambell and Brad Bastin. Brian Bailey was also sworn in as a member of the Judicial Council. Chad Howe was appointed to the Students Rights Committee Chair posi-tion.

SGA also played a game called “The Great Debate.” This game was intended to be an icebreaker exercise, howev-er it divided the senators into

for and against categories. Questions ranged from—are you for or against Obama?

Are you Pro-life or Pro-choice? Are you for or against the Iraq War? Most senators readily separated themselves, however few were willing to pick whether they were for or against the War leading to the question being thrown out as too controversial.

The next few meetings of SGA promise to be full of debate and of interest to stu-dents. Next week Dean Jeff Waple is expected to give a presentation looking at revis-ing the student code of con-

duct. On March 1, university administrators will be present to talk to SGA about possible fee increases. Both of these topics have the impact to dra-matically affect student life.

President Kaseke also an-nounced that SGA had nu-merous resolutions that will be discussed and read in the meeting next week.

SGA encourages all stu-dents to be present at SGA meetings to stay informed of what is happening on campus and to voice their opinions on legislation that is before SGA. SGA meetings are held every Monday at 3:30pm in SU 104.

SGA Vern Hockney

Staff writer

the Vice President of Student Affairs, President of the Uni-versity and the BOR.

The largest hurdle in this process is getting three per-cent of students to sign the petition. Just as a reference point for how many signa-tures that would entail, NKU had an enrollment of 15,109 students in fall 2008. That means 454 students would have to sign a petition on a specifi c issue for it to be con-sidered.

“Three percent of the cur-rent student body; that’s

rather a tall order,” said Mc-Clure. “Not unreasonable in some circumstance and if an issue or a repeal or an amendment were honestly something that the students cared about...If this is an is-sue that touches the interest of the students, getting three percent of the student body would not be unheard of.”

If the entire process pass-es all of the injunctions set up along the way, McClure notes that “In the fi nal anal-ysis it all boils down to one thing, that’s the Board of Re-

gents.” If students still feel that a matter has not been given due consideration by the BOR, McClure admits that there is little students can do.

McClure shares insight as to why the buck stops at the BOR. “The student body is a beating heart of the univer-sity. And if you think with your heart and you add in politics that has a bottom fi -nancial line, you may make the wrong step, so something has to be the brain. So in this example we have delegated

to the state the right to estab-lish the brain of the body.”

He goes on to explain that “university settings are not typically democracies but the students’ voice is necessary and what prototype can you use — the American democ-racy...that’s why it’s [the ref-erendum process] somewhat a tempest in a tea pot, it’s a voice of opinion. We have a democratic process that gives us an opinion, as students, to the Board of Regents who take that into consideration, and they do.”

Even though this process can be construed as a “tem-pest-in-a-teapot,” the same can be said of SGA. The only real power the entire student body or SGA has is to make recommendations to administrators as to what they want done. But when an issue touches the student body as much as the “smok-ing ban resolution” has — it is worth students’ time to voice opinions to SGA, the BOR at their meetings and if necessary, begin a student initiative.

Throughout campus, pho-tographs are posted showing the many faces of Northern Kentucky University. How-ever, Student Government Association President and Student Regent Keith Kas-eke has indicated that there is only one face that speaks on behalf of the students — his. And this point of view may be behind the recent im-peachment and removal of offi ce of former SGA Execu-tive Vice President Dennis Chaney. Chaney took action to share a student point-of-view with university offi cials, allegedly without authoriza-tion from the SGA’s execu-tive board, on a perceived threat to student rights.

Now, Chaney is continu-ing to take action and make claims to counter his im-peachment. Chaney claims that the university admin-istration interfered in the impeachment process and encouraged certain charges against him and that the im-peachment was malicious and petty.

In addition, Chaney’s exit has prompted a reciprocal and questionably retaliatory impeachment claim against Kaseke. Kaseke stands be-hind the removal from offi ce of his running mate, saying Chaney was unprofessional and his conduct merited im-peachment. The university administration is remaining quiet about the issue and claiming they were unaware of the details of the impeach-ment, and Chaney said he cooperated with impeach-

ment efforts against Kaseke but did not instigate them and does not feel they were retaliatory.

Chaney’s alleged disre-spectful act and alleged in-terference by University of-fi cials

One of the charges in the Articles of Impeachment against Chaney references a debate that arose between the university’s Associate Legal Counsel, Jay Manire, and Chaney at a Faculty Senate meeting regarding the proposed revisions to the university’s Intellectual Property Policy. The policy revision raised concerns in the minds of at least one member of the Faculty Sen-ate, as well as a group of students, including Chaney, because they believed the change gave the university the right to publish student assignments without permis-sion or notifi cation to the student. The Articles allege that Chaney was disrespect-ful to Manire at this meet-ing — a claim that Chaney and others deny, including Emily Detmer-Goebel, assis-tant professor and assistant chair to the English depart-ment. She was present at the meeting as a Faculty Senator and wrote a letter of support to the SGA Chief Justice indicating she did not feel Chaney acted disrespectfully.

“It is my belief that Mr. Chaney represented student government’s concerns with appropriate dignity,” Det-

mer-Goebel said in the let-ter. “His questions of Legal Counsel seemed quite legiti-mate and reasonable.”

Manire repeatedly refused to comment on the record specifi cally about the de-bate at the meeting. “I have no interest, information or opinion on Mr. Chaney, his performance as a represen-tative of the SGA and the impeachment proceedings,” he said.

However, Chaney claims the Offi ce of Legal Affairs and General Counsel — un-der which Manire works — had an interest in the pro-ceeding and that Manire’s supervisor, Sara Sidebottom, the Vice President of Legal Affairs and general counsel “prompted,” his accusers to add the claim about arguing with Legal Counsel to the Articles of Impeachment be-cause she “apparently feels it is inappropriate for students (to) ask legitimate ques-tions.”

Chaney said it was Kaseke who told him that Sidebot-tom was behind the charge. Kaseke said he received a complaint about how Chaney acted towards Manire, but he was unsure of where it origi-nated; however, Sidebottom denied the alleged infl uence.

“This matter doesn’t in-volve the NKU legal affairs offi ce. I took no action and did not advise anyone as to the behavior of Mr. Kaseke or Mr. Chaney. Any response beyond that would be inap-propriate, as this is a student affairs issue,” Sidebottom

said.Kaseke also at least want-

ed Chaney to believe that Vice President of Student Affairs Zebulun Davenport and Dean of Students Jeffrey Waple did not want him to attend a meeting of the Fac-ulty Senate, according to an audio recording obtained by The Northerner.

The debate over a student’s right to their own work

“The student as the origi-nator of their work reserves the right and know if their work will be published,” Chaney said. “Harm can be done to students if their work is published without their knowledge.”

The example Chaney cited was writing competitions that limit entries based on whether a writing has been “published” according to their defi nitions. If the uni-versity can publish student work with their consent, their actions could impact the stu-dents ability to enter the work on their own in other contests, costing them valu-able potential scholarship dollars. This was the concern brought up by Chaney to the university’s administration that served as basis of most of the complaints against him in the impeachment al-legations.

“I don’t think it’s an issue,” Manire. said In one way, this policy actually protects stu-dents on long-term projects from having a student who did not substantially con-

tribute to a project and that has since left the university from holding up the entry of a project in an academic contest.

This was part of the issues brought up in the debate, according to Chaney. When Manire raised this and other points, Chaney says, he coun-tered with other legal prec-edents and standards that he believed indicated that Manire’s examples were in-accurate or inapplicable.

“Jay (Manire) was making outlandish claims and threat-ening to sue the school on the behalf of students if any requirements to seek per-mission to publish material of students (were violated) because somehow a profes-sor who copies a student’s assignment onto a fl ash drive to grade at home without the student’s permission would be a copyright violation,” said Chaney. “I asked him how that could be true with the Fair Use Doctrine in the 1970 Copyright Act and the exemptions for the academic purpose in copyright viola-tions.”

Manire continuously re-fused to publicly comment on the conversation or his perceptions.

The situation that Chaney raises appears unlikely. And Manire did say it is addressed in the law and the current policy. Still, Chaney said he believed the risk to students was important enough to continue to be addressed to the highest levels of the university administration,

and he wanted to continue his advocacy to that point; a goal that was inconsistent with that of the SGA Execu-tive Board and led to his im-peachment.

The revisions to the Intel-lectual Property Policy have now been approved and implemented. Students that have concerns or issues with the policy can bring their concerns before a university complaint board.

Chaney’s alleged ‘inappro-priate contact’ with Board of Regents

According to the Articles of Impeachment, Chaney represented a student point-of-view or asked questions of members of the univer-sity’s governing board, the Board of Regents, on four occasions. The claim indi-cates that Chaney made a statement at the Board of Regents meeting on Nov. 11, 2009, regarding the pro-posed revision of the univer-sity’s Intellectual Property Policy after being told not to by Kaseke “in the pres-ence of the Dean of Students (Waple).”

Chaney denies that he was told not to address the Board; rather, he says that Kaseke informed him that he would address the issue. Nonetheless, Chaney was recognized to speak at the meeting by the Board of Regents and shared these student concerns, prompting this charge to be included in the impeachment Articles.

“There’s a difference between speaking up and speaking out of turn,” Kas-eke explained when asked about this complaint.

In an audio recording ob-tained by The Northerner, Chaney and Kaseke talk about Chaney’s comments to the Board of Regents and Kaseke says his actions were not supported by the SGA.

“I don’t think you get it, Dennis. It’s not what you want to achieve, it’s how you went about it that was wrong,” Kaseke said. “Now if you decide to act on your own accord, SGA cannot support you on that.”

“Well, I wasn’t acting on my own accord. I was acting on the accord of students’ in-terests,” Chaney responded.

“But you were acting on behalf of SGA and you’re not the face of SGA. You’re not the face of the person who represents the students,” Kaseke explained.

In additon, according to the Articles of Impeachment, Chaney directly e-mailed members of the Board of Regents “without following correct policy and proce-dure.” Chaney claims he was unaware of any policy and procedure and that the Ex-ecutive Board never articu-lated one in its written rules.

‘Petty’ complaints?

In the last e-mail, it is al-leged that Chaney defamed Kaseke when he said, “A number of statements from Regent Kaseke have been

discovered to be contradicto-ry and confusing,” referring to a deadline for when the Intellectual Property Policy must be passed.

Other claims in the im-peachment included that on one occasion, Chaney was 33 minutes late to a Faculty Senate meeting, to which he served as a liaison — a claim that Chaney does not dis-pute. However, Chaney said his tardiness was uninten-tional.

“People do make mistakes, but that was not the only thing that was taken into consideration,” Kaseke ex-plained. “All those instances put together did warrant an impeachment.

“It’s just not professional,” Kaseke added.

Chaney has called these allegations ‘petty,’ a claim with which Kaseke said he disagreed.

In addition, it is alleged in the Articles of Impeachment that on Nov. 16, 2008, Chaney made a disrespectful com-ment about the SGA lead-ership and the University’s Student Affairs leaders. In that meeting, it is alleged that Chaney said, “I do not care what you (SGA President) or the Deans think, but I am going to Faculty Senate.”

Chaney provided The Northerner with an audio re-cording which he says was of the conversation in question. The recording includes a conversation on this subject matter between Kaseke and Chaney, but The Northerner is unable to validate the date

of the recording or whether it includes the entire conver-sation.

In that conversation, the alleged statement is never spoken. Chaney says this demonstrates Kaseke’s lack of truthfulness. However, the message behind the alleged statement is present in the recording. Chaney consis-tently reminds Kaseke that he is under a mandate in the SGA Constitution to attend the Faculty Senate meet-ing, and Kaseke references talking with both the Vice President for Student Affairs (Davenport) and Dean of Students (Waple) about the issue and reminds Chaney he will speak with them again and tell them that Chaney plans on attending the meet-ing, despite his wishes. He also tells Chaney that he will be attending on his own and not as a representative of the SGA.

The other complaint in the impeachment proceedings was actually an election com-plaint relating to campaign-ing practices by Chaney in May 2009.

Kaseke’s impeachment charges: administration over students?

It was not soon after Chaney was removed from offi ce that a new set of im-peachment allegations were presented — this time alle-gations were pressed against Kaseke. The most severe al-legation is that he did not take his obligations to the

SGA Constitution seriously.The Articles of Impeach-

ment against Kaseke claim that he said: “If I want to fol-low the Constitution and be gung-ho about it, I would, I could do that... Yeah, that is what the oath is about. You know, there is a lot more to life that just following the Constitution, and the rules, and having things your (Den-nis) own way.”

Kaseke admits making this statement; however, he of-fered an explanation for his statement and said he sus-pects it is being using out of context.

“I think he misinterpreted that,” Kaseke said. “Together with those items, those are things as just as important. You can follow the (SGA) Constitution, but still do things wrong. You will not get anything achieved. They are still other things that you need to do...In addition to following rules and regula-tions and the (SGA) Consti-tution, there are other things that you have to do in order to run an organization. My focus is to have a good rela-tionship with everybody but keep the students’ interests at heart. But, we all know, students cannot get anything achieved without the (uni-versity) administration.

“I’m defi nitely there for the students,” Kaseke says. “We are fortunate here that we have a (university) presi-dent and (a university) ad-minstration that is here for the students ... You can still get along, I’ll still stand my

A Northerner investigation: Was Dennis Chaney’s impeachment justifi ed?Former Vice President of Student Government argues he was wrongly impeached

Jesse CallStaff writer

8 Edition 45, Issue 3 9January 27, 2010

See IMPEACHMENT on page 15

Heather WilloughbyViews Editor

Charlotte Etherton/Photo EditorFreshman Elizabeth Meyer is serious about student voice.

No more excusesStudents are challenged to ‘think again’ about involvement

Mark OsborneSophomore, Manage-

ment

“Yes, because it’s giving me a say in what goes on

in our school.”

Aaron BranstutterSophomore, MMET

“No, because I do not have time.”

Caitlyn ThompsonSophomore, Business

HR

“No, because I always forget to vote.”

rnpCompiled by

Heather Willoughby & Cassie Graves

Do you participate in student politics?

norse poll responses

For more Norse poll responses and video, visit www.thenortherner.com

Colleen DonohoueFreshman, Photography

“No, I don’t at all. I’m just not here that much.”

Would you be interested to fi nd that the President or Vice President of the United States had been impeached? Are you aware when new laws are passed?

What about at Northern Kentucky University? Can you tell me the name of the Student Government Associa-tion President?

For many people, these an-swers differ greatly. While I realize that comparing your university to your country may be a bit extreme, I be-lieve there is some justifi ca-tion to the comparison. Dur-ing your four (or more) year tenure at Northern Kentucky University, its policies, elected offi cials, monetary decisions and the like should concern you. While the concerns of student government seem more transitory than the con-cerns of governmental affairs, the amount invested into both should be equal while you are in college.

Right now, it seems the majority of the student body

doesn’t feel this way at all.‘But I don’t have time,’ you

say. Maybe you’re just too busy. Maybe events on this campus do not affect you that much because you only deign to show up for class, and not much else. Perhaps it just doesn’t interest you.

Even I have been guilty of some of this reasoning at one time or another, but I have come to realize something over my years at this univer-sity: they are all excuses. Not reasons, not justifi cations; they are simply excuses.

It doesn’t take much time to vote in the SGA elections; it is all online, which makes it all the more convenient. If you are going to vote, I think you should have an idea of what is going on with our SGA and the candidates. During SGA elections, you are provided with bios of all candidates that generally express a little about them as well as some of their stances on particular issues.

Student Government meet-ings are Mondays at 3:30 p.m.

I’m not expecting you to at-tend every one, and maybe your schedule doesn’t allow you to attend them at all, but you can fi nd the minutes on-line at http://sga.nku.edu. You can also read their updates, goals and announcements on their homepage.

If you feel that NKU has lit-tle to do with you because you are rarely on campus, think again. This group helps deter-mine your tuition costs and other fees. If you care about your money, you should care about SGA.

It doesn’t take a lot of time to keep yourself up to date on campus goings-on, and it doesn’t have to take a lot of energy. Everything is laid out for you — which is more than you can say for our country’s politics. It is only for your benefi t to participate; and if you choose not to, that is your right. But when things on campus are to your disliking, remember you will no longer have the opportunity to dis-pute.


VIEWS

He’s a 21st century Ghostbuster, fully equipped and poised to nab the garden variety specter that crosses his path. But rather than duping his oth-erworldly prey with ectoplasmic guns and proton packs — the contrives of Hollywood film — his trade is rooted in reality, employing equipment that is specialized in tracking down and communicat-ing with whatever, or whomever, is on the other side.

“It’s well known that our bodies work off electrical pulses,” said Mike Hon, paranor-mal investigator and senior Electronic Media and Broadcasting major at NKU. “When you die, that electrical energy has to go some-where.”

Often that energy, with no viable body of its own to occupy, attaches itself to an object, such as a house, an abandoned prison or even a living being, Hon says.

“We experience all types of cases, from mild to wild,” said Chris Maggard, co-founder of Tri-

State Paranormal of Northern Kentucky (T.S.P.), the company which Hon works for. “There can be small activity in a home or business, to something that can

be stronger, like an ‘attachment’ entity or poltergeist activity.”

The attachment entity is what the ex-perts in the field refer to as any object that is possessed by an entity. According to Hon,

attachment phenomenons occur in part to the tremendous amount of sentimental emotion the entity might have towards an object while still in a living state.

“That is why you stand the chance of tak-ing home an entity when buying something at an

antique shop,” Hon said. “You might buy a table and weird things begin happening around the

house.”Although unseen, the entities that Hon

and T.S.P. pursue can be the culprit of any number of creeks and rattles one might encounter at their home. Often, the ob-ject that repetitively gets moved for no apparent reason, the television that sporadically initiates itself to turn on and any number of unexplained phe-nomenon, could be linked to an entity attempting to communicate with the living.

That is where Hon and the other paranormal investigators come in. The team gets is asked to visit a home or business suspected of hav-ing paranormal activity. Hon begins to perform his duties as Technical Manager, setting up the highly sensitive audio equipment (elec-

tronic voice phenomena recorders) and infrared

digital video re-corders — all re-

quired gear to pick up a frequency that is

beyond the naked sens-es’ comprehension.“We use all the equipment

in tandem,” Hon said. “If we happen to catch an apparition on

the infrared camera, we attempt to get it on the audio equipment. We are

highly skeptical and don’t consider the presence of an entity proven until we begin

to track it on more than one piece of gear.”Although the investigators use highly advanced

technology, they often employ simple techniques to prove a presence, such as dowsing rods. The copper rods are held in the investigator’s appos-ing hands, and are akin to the Y-shaped dowsing rods that have been utilized throughout history to locate ground water.

“We hold one rod in each hand and begin to ask the entity questions,” Hon said. “We might ask them if they were killed in this house or if they are searching for something, like their children.”

The entities are instructed to cross the rods if they are responding “yes” to the question, and to pull them apart if they want to communicate “no.”

“We usually start by asking if the entity is even in the room with us. From time to time we get the eerie whisper of ‘Yesssss,’” Hon said. “That’s when this job gets creepy. But that’s why I got involved in this kind of stuff in the first place.”

The 25-year-old Hon admits that he’s been inter-ested in the paranormal all his life. From watching The X-Files to staying up late to catch the occa-sional haunting flick on TV, Hon has been search-ing for answers.

“From early on I wanted to know the truth,” Hon said. “It seems that religion is what many equate to truth. I’ve searched many religions, but ended up not committing to any of them.”

A self-proclaimed Atheist for most his life, Hon was certain that religion could not satiate his in-quisitive nature. That is, of course, until he expe-rienced a life-changing encounter within the con-fines of his own home.

“My girlfriend and I were living with a friend in Newport at the time. We just started living to-gether and everything seemed normal,” Hon said.

But normal took a peculiar turn. While lying in bed one night, Hon began to experience strange noises coming from the floor, as if something was scratching its nails across the carpet. What seemed bizarre at the time, Hon soon dismissed, and life continued on as usual — until his roommate be-gan showing up with unexplained scratches on his body.

“It all started with these scratches. Everyone be-gan getting marked up, without any idea of what was causing it,” Hon said.

Other forms of aggression began to mount. Un-explained bouts of hair pulling would overcome Hon’s live-in girlfriend, Keleah Collins.

“It was freaky. I would be in the bedroom and all of a sudden my hair would get yanked,” Collins said.

What started out as innocuous scratches across the carpet, soon took a turn for the worse. On one

Jeremy JacksonA&E Editor

Pursuing the paranormal NKU student communicates with the other side

See PARANORMAL on page 12

11January 27, 2010

A&E

Photo by: Charlotte Etherton

particular evening, the cou-ple went through their nor-mal rituals before turning in for the night: brushing their teeth, smoking the day’s last cigarette, and eagerly plan-ning their agenda for the next morning — before tip-ping off into complete slum-ber.

“I was jolted awake by Ke-leah. She was sorta’ just sit-ting over me, nudging at my body,” Hon said. “And her look, it was like nothing I had ever seen. It stared right through me.”

According to Hon, Kele-ah’s stare was accompanied by a devious grin that soon gave way to sexual advances.

“I’m not that kind of girl. Plus, our relationship was still new and we weren’t in-timate that much,” Collins said. “He said the whole incident lasted about fi ve minutes and occurred three more times that night. I don’t remember any of it.”

Hon was dead set on get-ting to the bottom of the strange occurrences. In a fi t

of confusion, he enlisted the help of his colleague, Mag-gard, who attempted to puri-fy the home by burning sage

and repeating a prayer that evoked the name of Jesus Christ and Saint Michael.

Four days had passed and the incidence of scratching continued.

“The strange thing is that the occurrences started to happen more and more when Keleah and I would get inti-mate, as if the entity was jeal-ous of her.”

His prior bewilderment was reaching a level of des-peration. With little hope in sight of resolving the un-

wanted presence, Hon — who subscribed to no religion — turned to the local clergy, convincing a priest to pay a visit to the couple’s home.

“When he got here, you could tell right away that he was uncertain, maybe even afraid.” Hon said.

The priest began to bless the house, fl inging Holy wa-ter into the air as he hesitant-

ly traversed from room to room. A clattering noise be-gan to erupt from the vacant rooms upstairs, echoing into

the ground level. The noise contin-ued to build, reach-ing a crescendo as the priest made his fi nal round. And then he stopped.

“The noise just went away. I’m not sure how or why it worked, but when the priest left, the house just seemed lighter, as if we were living in a basement before, and all of a sudden,

we weren’t.” Days had passed and the

couple was convinced that the house and their lives were no longer being haunt-ed. The unexplained bouts of hair pulling and scratching remained dormant, but other strange occurrences began to arise.

“The original entity stopped, but there seemed

to be another entity in the house, like a kid or some-thing,” Hon said.

Items began to show up out of place as if children had been curiously picking objects up and leaving them tipped over or transporting them to other parts of the home. The child-like entity would remain in the house until Hon and his girlfriend moved away.

“It was a really strange and life-changing experience.” Hon said. “That whole situa-tion made me rethink every-thing.”

The man who for years, had regarded himself as a self proclaimed atheist began attending church, transform-ing into a Christian.

“I’m not what you would call a devout Christian, but I certainly believe more now.” Hon said. “When it comes to defending yourself against something you can’t see — like an entity — you realize just yourself is not enough. That is why I turned to the help of God.”


A&EPARANORMAL from page 11

The unexplained episodes of hair pulling and scratching remained dormant, but other strange occurrences began to arise.

,,

,,

Tim Downer/Staff PhotographerSenior David Palmer led the Norse in a tough game against Bellarmine on Jan. 23. The Men’s next game is the Jan. 28 at Illinois-Springfi eld.

Drew LaskeySports Editor

Norse look to turn aroundTeam struggles in Great Lakes Valley Conference

SPORTS

Bellarmine edged past the Northern Kentucky Univer-sity men’s basketball team 74-69 on Jan. 23 despite a number of Norse comebacks throughout the second half.

Senior center David Palm-er led the Norse with a dou-ble-double, tallying 15 points and grabbing 12 boards. Se-nior guard Scott Bibbins and junior guard Dennis Gagai fi nished with 11 points each and Corey Sorrell and Chris Knight both added 10 points of their own.

The Knights jumped out to an 8-0 run before Gagai put the Black and Gold on the board with a pair of free throws. Two early fouls on David Palmer sent him to the bench within the fi rst few minutes, making him a non-

factor for a majority of the fi rst half.

Bellarmine took advantage of Palmer’s absence shoot-ing 60 percent from the fi eld and connecting on 50 percent of their three-pointers in the fi rst half. The Norse, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to buy a bucket — shooting 20 percent from three and 39 percent from the fi eld.

Free throws played a strong role in keeping the game rel-atively close in the fi rst half for the Norse. NKU shot 8-9 from the line bringing them within 10, 38-28, at halftime.

“We let them shoot and we gave them too many baskets,” coach Dave Bezold said. “We kept battling back but we just couldn’t take the lead. It didn’t help that Palmer had

to sit the bench a lot of the fi rst half.”

The Norse didn’t back down quietly or without a fi ght. Although there were no lead changes throughout the game, NKU came to within four, three, and two on count-less occasions. But as hard as NKU fought to take the lead, Bellarmine fought equally hard to sustain it.

The Norse’s shooting seemed to improve in the sec-ond half, increasing both their fi eld goal percentage and three-point percentage by 17 percent. However, the foul trouble that plagued Palmer in the fi rst half didn’t disap-pear in the second half as he picked up his third foul in the opening minute.

The Norse maintained their

composure, though, and put together a 11-2 run to bring them within one. The Knights responded with two quick baskets, and that type of play seemed to be the theme of the game: NKU would go on a spurt, but Bellarmine would always return the favor soon-er than later.

The Knights’ Jeremy Ken-dle led Bellarmine with a near triple-double, posting 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and sinking 13 of his 16 free throw attempts. The consistent shooting didn’t stop there for Bellar-mine — Justin Benedetti shot a perfect 3-3 from behind the arc and fi nished with 17 points.

This loss brings the Norse to 10-9 overall and 3-7 in the

Great Lakes Valley Confer-ence, placing them fi fth in the GLVC East Division. After experiencing a four-game los-ing streak earlier this month, the Norse rebounded with wins against Maryville 86-79 on Jan. 18 and an impressive win against no. 13 Kentucky Wesleyan 67-62 on Jan. 21.

Despite Saturday’s loss, coach Bezold thinks that things are looking up.

“I know we’re moving for-ward,” Bezold said. “We need to get better and we’ll get back in the gym and go at it. This season is going fast, but we’ll catch up with it.”

The Norse look to get things back on track against Illinois-Springfi eld on Jan. 28 — the fi rst of a two-game road trip for NKU.

13January 27, 2010

Tim Downer/Staff Photographer

Casse Mogan was aggressive when playing Bellarmine Jan. 23. The Lady Norse defeated their rival 76-58.

Keep the wins comingWomen steal a victory against archrival Bellarmine

SPORTS


Four players scored in dou-ble fi gures for the Northern Kentucky University women’s basketball team as they rolled past archrival Bellarmine 76-58 on Jan. 23.

Brandi Rayburn led the offensive onslaught with 21 points — 11 of which came in the fi rst half — and pulled down six rebounds. Casse Mo-gan poured in 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds of her own. Sadie Bowling scored 14 points and Rachel Lantry added 13 to assist the Norse to their fourth-straight win.

The game started out closely with the Norse holding a nar-row 11-10 lead in the opening minutes. Then NKU went on an 8-0 run and never looked back, compiling a number of similar runs for the remainder of the game.

“I felt like the fl ow of the game really helped with the kind of shots we were getting,” said Rayburn, a senior for-ward. “We all started getting into rhythm and getting into the fl ow of the game, which made it easier to score.”

The turnover category was in favor of the Norse this game as they tied their season low of eight and cut their season aver-age of 16 per game in half.

“Turnovers were one of the things we wanted to cut down on in this game because we did have a lot of turnovers on Wednesday,” Rayburn said. “We wanted to take care of the ball this game and get our shots and everyone contributed and we got the shots that we get in our offense.”

The protection of the ball led to an effi cient offense as the Norse shot 47 percent from the fi eld for the game and 33 per-cent from behind the arc. The Norse also took advantage of their free throw opportunities, sinking 81 percent of their 16 attempts.

”When you don’t turn the

ball over, you get shots,” coach Nancy Winstel said. “Thurs-day, we turned the ball over 23 times and when you turn the ball over, you don’t get shots. So our goal is to get shots. If you get shots, a lot of the times there’s a good chance they’ll go in.

“When you hit a few you gain a lot of confi dence, we hit some early and that gave us confi -dence, and it’s kind of conta-gious. It’s like the fl u — one person gets sick, everyone gets sick. One person scores, every-body scores. And I thought that scoring was contagious today.”Bellarmine (11-8, Great Lakes Valley Conference 4-6) relied on the performance of Britta-ny Edelen, a Division I transfer from the University of Ken-tucky, as she led the Knights with 22 points and eight re-bounds. Edelen leads the Great Lakes Valley Conference in blocked shots at just over two per game, and she met that av-erage against NKU.

The Norse improved to 13-6 overall with a GLVC record of 7-3, which places them third in the GLVC East Division and just one game behind the Uni-versity of Southern Indiana for second place.

NKU’s 62-60 win against Wisconsin-Parkside on Jan. 16 was the fi rst of their current four-game win streak. Their next win came on the road against Maryville on Jan. 18. It was a more comfortable win for the Norse as they handled the Saints 66-53. The follow-ing win came against Kentucky Wesleyan on Jan. 21 as the Norse topped the Panthers 51-42.

The Norse will look to con-tinue their win streak on Jan. 28 on the road against Illinois-Springfi eld, who is in its fi rst season in the GLVC.“We’re becoming not so young — we’ve been together for a while now,” Winstel said.

Drew LaskeySports Editor

15January 27, 2010

NORTHERNER INVESTIGATION

IMPEACHMENT from page 9

ground, but I’ll respectfully do that.”The Articles of Impeachment in-

clude several other charges includ-ing that Kaseke wasted an entire meeting by not following the proper procedure in the appointment of stu-dent senators and that he violated campaign promises to be open and transparent in his governance.

Was the impeachment of Kaseke retaliatory?

Of the nine complaints raised in the Articles of Impeachment, six relate directly to Chaney and/or his impeachment. They state that Kas-eke ordered the SGA advisors out of the impeachment hearing against Chaney without authorization, that he failed to follow several of the proper procedures in the impeach-ment of Chaney, that he was “dis-honest or grossly ignorant” about his own actions relating to the impeach-ment procedures, that he defamed

Chaney with false allegations in his impeachment and that he allegedly directed his opposing candidate in the SGA presidential election, Kevin Reynolds, who is no longer an SGA member, to attend Faculty Senate meetings, despite this duty belong-ing to Chaney.

However, it was not Chaney who filed the charges. SGA Senator Nico-las Georgescu filed the Articles of Impeachment against Kaseke. None-theless, the timing of the impeach-ment allegations is questionable.

“The impeachment of Kaseke was not my idea. I was only asked for any relevant information pertaining to the investigation being performed by Senator Georgescu and Finance Chairman (Sean) Henry,” Chaney said. “I do not believe the impeach-ments were retaliatory. If you read the impeachment of Kaseke, each claim is supported by citations to the relevant sections of the Constitution and the standing rules which Kaseke

swore an oath to uphold and unfor-tunately violated.”

And Chaney said the possibility of seeking impeachment of Kaseke was explored prior to the allegations being brought against him, but were not pursued. However, he said he provided them with audio record-ings and other evidence at their re-quest after his impeachment, which may have given what they needed to finalize their charges.

“Senator Georgescu and Chair-man Henry take their oaths of office seriously and sincerely care that the Constitution and standing rules of order that Kaseke also swore to up-hold and adhere are followed. They felt he had violated those rules, and felt obligated by their oath to au-thor the impeachment Articles to uphold the Constitution,” Chaney explained.

Is this a personal dispute playing out publicly?

One of the complaints Chaney has raised against Kaseke is that the President excluded Chaney from an SGA Executive Board meeting, of which Chaney was a member at the time, along with Kaseke, Vice President of Public Relations Wade Miller, Vice President of Adminis-tration Danielle Hawks and Vice President of Student Involvement Max Swartz. The purpose of this meeting, Chaney alleges, was to dis-cuss the potential impeachment of Chaney. According to Chaney, he was told the meeting was canceled by Kaseke and Swartz, a claim Kas-eke denied.

Despite denying that anyone told Chaney the meeting was can-celed, Kaseke nonetheless told The Northerner that the meeting in question was not a formal meeting of the SGA Executive Board.

“We did meet as a group but it was not as a defined SGA E-board meeting,” he said.

Chaney refers to this as the time when the Executive Board met ‘surreptitiously’ to impeach him.

However, Kaseke denies that any personal bias was behind the im-peachment.

“I don’t have any beef with Den-nis. I did this for the students first to achieve our goals. We need to

be productive. I thought that part of SGA wasn’t productive,” Kaseke said.

Kaseke still in office, should he re-sign?

Kaseke’s impeachment has still not been fully adjudicated. Chaney has called for Kaseke to resign in light of the impeachment allegations.

“In regard to the actions Presi-dent Kaseke has undertaken this year, knowing full well the constitu-tion and standing rules of order, he should resign, effective immediate-ly,” Chaney said.

However, Kaseke laughed when asked if he planned to resign.

Read Chaney’s entire formal state-ment to The Northerner and hear the audio clip provided online at http://www.thenortherner.com/.

To voice your opinion on the

impeachments:

Visit thenortherner.com

Two English Bulldog puppies (male & female)need new home.

They are both AKC registered.

If you are interested, kindly send an e-mail to: rowlandblake70@yahoo.

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The Northerner Print Edition - January 27, 2010

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