10 – Looking Back At Campus Flooding

This was the only story submitted by Tom Perry’s writing classes to make it to the Top 10.  Stacy Frederick did a great retrospective piece on the 2004 and 2005 floods.  The Ohio River went over its banks twice that year, flooding Marietta and the College in the process.  Frederick’s article had some great interviews with alumni and College officials, and shows the improvements made to the College’s flooding preparedness plans.

You can read that article here.

9 – Student Speak Out Coverage

Our Student Speak Out coverage was so popular this Fall that it actually crashed the site, which I was impressed by.  If you want to take a look back, here is the Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 live blog pages.  We will actually have our Top Questions from the Fall Student Speak Out here this week.

8 – Student Senate Posters Get Defaced

Maybe when I originally ran this story, it was a bit “Fox News”-ish.  But apparently readers wanted to hear about Student Senate candidate posters getting defaced.  The original story ran here.

7 – The Front Street Fire

A lot of students found out about the fire just by waking up to the tell-tale scent of fire, which floated across campus from Front Street.  In what we now know, the fire was an arson set by burglars trying to cover their tracks.  Their decision caused the loss of the former Goodwill building, which housed the Marietta Wine Cellar.  An adjacent building was also burned, which included the Front Street Deli and the Riverside Gallery.

You can find the photo gallery we posted here.

Here is some video we took, and a package we made to cover the fire.

6 – Movie and Game Rental Options

A smaller filler article we ran to talk about new movie and video game rental options was apparently a big hit, as it makes the list.  The article makes even more sense now that the Marietta Movie Gallery has closed.  Blockbuster’s new movie and game rental service was featured in the piece, along with Netflix’s announcement about adding more movies to their online streaming service.  Also, Hulu now has their Hulu Plus service, which adds to the list of shows and seasons available to viewers on their website, and allows shows to be watched on devices other than their computer.

5 – 4/20 Mall Chalking & Cleaning

We never found out who the culprits of the 4/20 Mall Chalking were, but their “artwork” gave those heading to class something new to look at.  Of course, it also gave Physical Plant a headache.  While we had originally reported that chalk in appropriate areas would be left, Physical Plant brought out water pumps and cleaned the entire mall of their messages.  Well, that and all the chalk on buildings, curbs, and benches.

You can check out the photos right here.

4 – The Fake Senior Week Flyer

You know somebody pulled a good April Fool’s Day joke when the College has to send out an e-mail to make sure everybody knows it is a fake.  A flyer was posted around campus that included Senior Week events, and how Seniors could go about registering for the week of activities.  It looked pretty legitimate.  Except instead of things like “Strawberries and Creme” or “Senior Picnic”, we saw fictional events like “Hobo Train Ride” and “Degree Auction”.  I was personally looking forward to the “Million Dollar Bonfire”, but that’s just me.  No word if the official (unofficial) bar crawl happened or not.

You can see the flyer at the link here.

3 – Norovirus Week Of Hell

I got it.  I know countless others that got it.  I know people that had to go to the hospital because of it.  And I even know a few souls that almost activated their Z-Day Apocolypse plans because of it.

I’m referring to the norovirus that swept its way across campus early in the Spring 2010 semester.  We never heard the official numbers, but over 30 students had to be admitted to Marietta Memorial Hospital at some point.  I think it would be easy to venture to guess that hundreds of Marietta College students got the norovirus.

Almost comicly, the College and Chartwells went into disinfection mode.  They shut down all food service locations, and contained all food operations to Gilman.  Silverware and plates were replaces with plastic and styrofoam.  Cans of pop and bottles of water were handed to students.  And to top it all off, they wrapped individual fruit, like bananas, to protect them and us.  Hopefully we don’t see a repeat of this come January.

You can read about the story here.

2 – Greek Week Lip Sync

What more can be said other than that the Greek Week Lip Sync videos were some of the most-watched videos Writing on the Mall has ever had.  And the page where you could view all five (ATO didn’t have one this year) on one page.  The most popular video was Delta Tau Delta’s lip sync, which won the competition.  That video actually has a chance of breaking the 1,000 view barrier, a first for Writing on the Mall.

Click on the link here to view all five lip sync videos.

1 – The Sexual Assault Case

Undoubtedly the most viewed story of 2010, the stories related to this received a ton of attention.

In February of 2009, a woman was allegedly raped in her room in Parsons Hall.  Over a year later, police allegedly matched DNA evidence to Brandon Marino, who had been sitting in a Hamilton County jail for unrelated charges.  Things went quiet for a while, until the Fall election season rolled around, and then-candidate for Attorney General Mike DeWine began using the Marietta College Rape in political ads.

His point was that it took too long to process the rape kit and related DNA samples.  The claim was that it was normal for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation in the state of Ohio to take up to six months or longer to process samples..  It picked up so much attention that even Politifact decided to weigh in on the claims.  They found that a majority of DNA samples were being processed in 70 days, but that about 8% of cases took longer than six months to process.

You can see some of the most popular stories here and here.

Greek Week 2010 kicked off on Saturday with Community Service Day, but the week’s biggest event was Sunday night in Fenton COurt.  Lip Sync, the most highly coveted Greek competition, brought five of the six chapters at MC to the stage.  The chapters were given the task of finding songs between the late 80′s and 1999 (The Nickelodeon period, I guess you could say), but there was no actual theme for the night.  However, most chapters followed the Greek Week theme, which is Nickelodeon.

Lambda Chi Alpha took the stage first.  Their performance brought the first recorded mass-aww in Lip Sync history.  At the end of their show, they saluted the graduating seniors with a sign, and walked off to a standing ovation.  Here is Lambda Chi Alpha’s 2010 Lip Sync.  Songs included “Friends in Low Places”, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, “Paradise City”, “Fly Like an Eagle”, “Jerry Springer”, “Closing Time”, and “The Circle of Life”.

Next on the Stage was Sigma Kappa.  They titled their lip sync “Tales of the 90′s Flashback” and incorporated as many Nick shows and references as possible.  They opened with a dance to the song, “What is Love?”, and then later included some Backstreet Boys and S Club 7.  Also, an appearance from Will Smith was included.  The Kappas also included “The Fairy Oddparents” theme, marking one the of only show title songs used for a lip sync.  Here’s the video of Sigma Kappa’s 2010 lip sync, which earned them third place.

Chi Omega was the third chapter up.  The 2009 Lip Sync champions brought us a road trip across the country with the help of Google.  Their road trip took them to Miami, where they lip synced to “Welcome to Miami” by Will SMith (A popular guy tonight, eh?), then headed North to Chicago for “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul.  While in Chicago, we heard a bit of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”.  The Chi O’s then headed across the country…making sure to avoid Texas, since “All My Ex’s Live in Texas”.  When they arrived in Los Angeles, the song “California Love” by Tupac was heard.  They finished with “Here We Go Now” by N*Sync.  Here is Chi Omega’s 2010 Lip Sync.

Alpha Xi Delta, who finished second in 2009, came back with their tour of AXi Studios.  They began with “Rugrats”, and went into the “Rugrats Rap” (yes…it does exist), and then went into “Baby Got Back”.  Next was a stop at “Hey Arnold”‘s set, where we were treated to Destiny Child’s “Say My Name” and Chumbawumba’s “Tubthumping (I Get Knocked Down)”.  On to the “Doug” set, we heard Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” and then were  ”Rick Rolled” with “Never Gonna Give You Up”.  They finished with “Time of Your Life”.  Here is Alpha Xi Delta’s 2010 Lip Sync, which was placed 2nd.

The last act up was Delta Tau Delta, who threw things back to “Salute Your Shorts”, which was the second live-action show on Nickelodeon.  As per usual with a Delt lip sync, conflict errupted between two sides, this time the Jocks and the Geeks.  Also included was their tradition chair dance.  The Geeks danced to Destiny Child’s “Survivor”, which came out in 2001, two years past the 1999 cut off.  The Delts also used “Yeah” by Usher, a song released in 2004, five years after the cut-off.  The two sides came together to dance to “It’s Tricky” by Run DMC.  They also used Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” and “Up in Here”.  Even with the songs outside of the requirements, Delta Tau Delta won the 2010 Lip Sync championship, and will receive a trophy for the achievement at Recognition Night on Friday.  Here is the winning Lip Sync.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Patrick Hahe is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha)

I know some people will ask about this, so I’ll answer it now.  They are looking for Double-Red donors.  And the other inevitable question?  All donors will receive flip flops (while supplies last).

Events start Saturday morning and continue through the following Friday.

Saturday, March 28th

Community Service Day
The Greek community will be helping out across the community Saturday Morning, splitting into ten groups.  Groups will be working at the  Marietta Sidewalk Survey, Humane Society, Ely Chapman, Friends of Lower Muskingum, Alternative High School, Habitat for Humanity, Buckeye Park, Community Gardens, EVE Women’s Shelter, and Kroger Wetlands from 9 AM to Noon.

Up ‘Til Dawn Finale
Fraternity and Sorority members are encouraged to attend the Up ‘Til Dawn Finale event, supporting St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.  I know that there will be a DJ there, and will assume that there will be inflatables and other fun things to do there.  The event is open to the college community, and is $5 for those that did not participate in the Up ‘Til Dawn letter-writing campaign .

Sunday, March 29th

Lipsync
Arguably the biggest event of Greek Week, Lipsync starts at 7 PM in Fenton Court.  A week and a half of stress and practice all comes down to 10-12 minutes on the stage.  The theme this year goes along with decades that VH1 has done “I Love The…” shows for.  Sigma Kappa and Alpha Tau Omega share the 80′s, Lambda Chi Alpha and Chi Omega share the 90′s, and Alpha Xi Delta and Delta Tau Delta share the new millennium.  Each group has selected seven songs from the decade that will be played in some form, and will display at least 5 pop-up factoids throughout their show.

Monday, March 30th

Mascot Challenge
Remember the Greek God/Goddess event from last year?  Well, it’s back.  This time, though, its been revamped.  The six campus greek letter organizations will dress up a candidate like the school’s mascot, the Pioneer, and give him phrases and poses to say and do.  The mascots will then be rated by students heading to dinner, as the event takes place out from of Gilman.

Tuesday, March 31st

Gilman Theme Night
A change from last year (I think), all Greeks will be wearing letters and having dinner at Gilman from 5-7 PM.  Really not much more to this event.

Wednesday, April 1st

Blood Drive
It’s time to hold out your arm and give ’til you stop bleeding.  Greek Council is teaming up with the American Red Cross from 9 AM to 5 PM to hold a blood drive in the Gathering Place.  They will be taking both regular blood donations and double-red donations.  All blood types are needed.

Cash Cab
The idea here is that one member of each class of each fraternity and sorority will be driven around town and be asked random questions, similar to a current TV show by the same name on the Discovery Channel.  Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors will duke it out to see who is the trivia king.  The event takes place from 6-8 PM in the Gathering Place.

Thursday, April 2nd

Greek Olympics
It’s a battle of the bodies and brains at DU Field from 6-8 PM.  Various events encompassing all sorts of attributes will take place, with points awarded based on performance.  All are welcome to view the spectacle and root for your favorite chapter.

Friday, April 3rd

Greek Awards Banquet
The applications have been turned in and the winners have been decided.  Who will walk away  with the various chapter and individual awards this year?  Only time will tell.  The event will start at 6 PM in the McDonough Auditoriuma and should take an hour.

Greek Ball
After a week of competition, it’s only fair to kick off the shoes and go dancing.  Everybody will move over to the Great Room in Andrews Hall and dance the night away (or, more likely, from 7-10 PM).