Tucson DeShon drapes a white apron across a boy sitting in a dorm room desk chair. “What are we looking for today?” he asks. DeShon, a sophomore marketing major, started cutting hair during his junior year of high school. He’s a triplet, and one of his brothers, Turner, was tired of going to a barber to get his haircut.
Starting in the wee hours of March 19, Miami University students across Oxford will begin celebrating Green Beer Day (GBD), a “holiday” where students dress up in green clothing or wear shirts sporting pop culture references related in some way to drinking beer colored a ghastly shade of green.
Sunlight beams in through the large windows at the front of the living room as Robert Schonlau sits before the gleaming ivory keys. His face, reflected in the glossy black finish above the ivories, is contemplative and serene as he adjusts the large-rimmed glasses on his face. Back straight and feet reaching for the pedals, the 16-year-old pianist sets his fingers to the smooth keys.
Every year, a new wave of first-year students are invited into the realm of sisterhood. Through the four seemingly never-ending rounds of sorority rush, girls search for a place to call home. But this search does not end when they receive their bid. Through lunch and study dates, a week full of being spoiled with surprise gifts and the final big reveal, sorority pledges go on the search to find the person to guide them on this new journey of sisterhood.
The warm scent of chicken, dumplings and other homemade cuisine hung over the crowd of students packed into the Armstrong Student Center’s Fritz Pavilion. The aroma wound its way through the numerous booths set up throughout the room, wrapping itself around brightly colored paper decorations and ornate ceremonial garb.
There was a small gap between the floor and the edge of the back curtain on the stage of Leonard Theatre in Peabody Hall. Just a few minutes before 7 p.m., a line of heels paraded from one side of the stage to the other, stiletto clicks ringing clearly through the theatre.
Long, black capes, pointy hats and wands dashed every which way in a hurry to emerge victorious. The whistle of a flute filled the air and magic filled the room. The third-annual Triwizard Tournament was in session, and Miami University’s muggles ran around Armstrong Student Center in celebration.
Imagine a silent, patient audience, partially comprised of students required to attend an event for a class and partially of eager LGBTQ+ community members ready to “get their life.” Now imagine that silence interrupted by three powerful words sung by Teyana Taylor.
In the summer of 1964, hundreds of students gathered on what is now Miami University’s Western Campus to learn how to register African American voters in the South, specifically Mississippi. Among them was retired Miami philosophy professor Rick Momeyer. Arrested three times, indicted by a grand jury and assaulted with various weapons in the South, Momeyer is an expert on Freedom Summer and its significance. “If you don’t know black history, you don’t know American history,” Momeyer said. “It’s not a separate history.”
Around three years ago, I committed to Miami University as an education major. I had attended Make it Miami, surrounded by lines of chattering high school students — red lanyards with name-tags hung about their necks, accompanied by anxious parents asking countless questions. It didn’t occur to me at the time that I would want to change my major before I had even gone to my first class.
“I promise you I didn’t do this on purpose.” Sophomore psychology major and independent musician Lyric Rains-Bury, also known mononymously as Lyric, says to me in reference to his outfit — a red-tinted shirt plastered with a baby picture of himself with his name on the sleeves. “I really just wanted to match with the rest of the red vibe I was feeling today,” he said. He also makes a point to call out how his anime-decorated walls are “weird,” and how I should divert my attention elsewhere. My eyes jumped to an endless mound of caffeinated beverages that seemed to have accumulated on the floor. As braggadocious and larger-than-life as Lyric presents himself in both his fashion choices and music stylings, he could not be more different in person.
Hunched over and focused on painting, students spilled into Armstrong Pavilions A & B to paint mugs last Tuesday night. The event, put on by Miami Activities and Programming (MAP) and Uptown pottery painting shop You’re Fired!, had a line of students waiting out the door to scan their IDs to get in.
What most obviously separates t’ai chi from other martial arts is the speed. “When you look, it’s slow, but when you learn, it’s difficult,” Xing said. Xing teaches two sections of Beginning T’ai Chi, listed under KNH 120T. This is his last semester in Oxford before he returns to China to continue teaching and studying Chinese martial arts as national traditional sports.
Sophomore Vedika Gupta isn’t sure what age she’s turning this year. The marketing major from India is a leapling, meaning her birthday falls on February 29, a date that only occurs every four years. “Technically I’m turning five, but also 20,” Gupta said. “So I think I’m turning five and 20.” Although she isn’t sure how to describe her age, Gupta finds joy and takes pride in her leapling status.
Leading up to their first tournament of the spring semester, the players on Miami University’s Quidditch team had only one thought: They had to beat Michigan. This would be their first time playing the University of Michigan since falling to them in the semifinals of the Great Lakes regional competition last fall. This time, they’d be playing on home turf.
Buried deep beneath Miami University’s pristine quads and beautiful buildings, a hidden network of tunnels criss-crosses the campus. Some of these passages, like the one underneath the sidewalk that runs alongside Bell Tower Commons, are visible to students who walk above. However, this tunnel system is far more extensive than what one can see above ground — approximately five miles of tunnels connect the various buildings on the mile square.
On the third floor of Miami University’s Shriver Center, tucked into a corner office, is the Miller Center for Student Disability Services (SDS). The space is decorated with art from local disabled artists and soft, flowing music fills the room. “Who are you here to see?” asked the woman sitting at the reception desk. The three of us looked at each other. “We have a meeting with Andy Zeisler,” Tim replied.
What’s black and white and bears a small resemblance to a cow? Moo, the aptly-named bunny. Although she has slightly-longer ears and a more impressive vertical leap than her bovine counterparts, the color similarities are striking.
Senior Lexi Scherzinger’s interest in fashion has literally taken her around the world. In the summer of 2018, she lived in New York City and interned for world-renowned fashion designer Christian Siriano. She then studied in Paris during the fall of 2018, right after she decided to switch majors. Originally a strategic communication major, she decided to change to journalism. She’s known that she wanted to study fashion since her second semester freshman year.
After two-straight weekends of waking up at 6 a.m. to get ready for a day filled with small talk, Haley Faber couldn’t be more excited to celebrate the end of recruitment with her sorority’s new pledge class.