Did you know her real name is Dionysus?
Di Daniels is the longest standing Fulcrum employee — and it’s not even close. The sex and relationship expert was first hired by the student publication back in 2002, and began writing her weekly column under her real name; Dionysus.
“From September 2000 to April 2002 my first husband Rich wrote a similar column, but after a number of complaints about his attitude the SFUO fired him as they owned the paper at the time,” said Daniels. “During the summer, the Fulcrum was looking for a new and nicer sex and relationship writer and having just finished my major in psychology at the U of O, I applied and got it.”
Daniels’ column was an instant hit and readers did not hesitate to ask her their most pressing sex and relationship questions.
“Since we had not set up my email for my first week, I didn’t get a question from the public, I had to answer a question from the features editor at the time who was cheating on her boyfriend and was scared he’d find out … students liked my answer and I’ve been flooded with questions every week since.”
In March 2003, at the end of her first year at the Fulcrum, she found out she was pregnant with her first child. Due to give birth in November, Daniels opted to take the year off from the Fulcrum but it wasn’t an easy decision.
“It was a tough decision, we had a good incoming editorial board that year and I wanted to try and work, but in the end, it turned out it was better to simply take the year off,” said Daniels.
Daniels would give birth to a daughter that fall which she would name Dianna — she is now a first-year student at the U of O and a regular source for the Tomato. As an hommage to her mother, she likes to be referred to as Di Daniels.
Daniels would come back to the Fulcrum the next year and take her old job back. However, things in her personal life were not exactly great and she needed a change.
She divorced Rich in 2005, and for the first time since high school was single. Enjoying her new found freedom, Daniels rekindled with university friends — after all she was only 24 and had lots to look forward.
“It was tough at first not seeing baby Di every now and then, but eventually I learned to live on my weeks off from parental duties … and I really discovered myself.”
Over the next couple of years, Daniels continued to answer Fulcrum readers’ questions, but eventually answering the same questions over and over again can get boring.
“I was tired of answering the same questions … I think I’ve answered some questions like a thousand times. For example, earlier this year a STEM student asked me how they could get laid — I’ve been asked this 1,000 times. The answer is simple: take a shower and stop talking about League of Legends.”
Bored and wanting to take her role as Fulcrum sex and relationship expert to the next level, Daniels decided she wanted to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s biggest orgy.
“I had just written a piece about orgy etiquette and thought why not put it into practice. Seeing that there are about 35,000 students at the U of O, I told my editor-in-chief at the time ‘why not go for the world record and have over 500 people.”
Sadly, only 14 students showed up, five were members of the Fulcrum’s Board of Directors and the other nine were STEM students.
“It was very awkward,” said Daniels.
Some students were upset with the orgy idea and sent a number of letters to the Fulcrum demanding Daniels’ dismissal. However, the Fulcrum’s ombudsperson at the time stepped up and tamed the situation.
“It was crazy, there were a bunch of misogynists calling me names on social media,” said Daniels
This, however, did make her some fans, one such fan was Ty Smith. Smith, ironically a fifth-year STEM student at the time, was a freelancer for the Fulcrum who really admired Daniels’ work.
“You know, when I saw what she tried to pull with the orgy, I was like damn,” said Smith. “I couldn’t make it to the orgy though because I had class.”
According to the editor-in-chief at the time, Smith would always ask at every contributor meeting if he could get a date with Daniels. After months of telling debating, he eventually did ask Daniels if she’d be willing to go on a date and she accepted.
“We kinda hit it right off the bat … he was sweet, nice and I forgot to follow my own advice for the first date,” said Daniels.
In 2016, Daniels and Smith would tie the knot, and as opposed to tradition, Smith would take Daniels’ last name. This would not be the last time Fulcrum readers heard the name Ty Daniels. In the 2018-19 academic year, with Daniels expecting her second child, Ty took over for his wife for the year temporarily renaming the column ‘Dear Ty.’
“It was a blast, that year we helped take down the SFUO, and the questions we were getting were lit, It was surprising to see how many students wanted to have sex with certain executives.”
Daniels would be back at her post in 2019-20 following the birth of her son, Daniel Daniels.
“It was good to be back, too bad for the pandemic though.”
It has been nearly twenty years since Daniels wrote her first column for the Fulcrum and in that time, she has seen numerous cohorts of students come and go with hundreds of sex and relationship related questions.
“I’ve seen a lot of students and i’ve answered a lot of questions.”
Daniels spoke of some of the craziest questions she’s ever answered.
“One student asked me if they could cure the clap by pouring vodka on their genitals, that was interesting.”
“I know Ty was asked about eating ass when that started … we looked it up one night and were like, ‘woah.’ ”
When asked what were the most concerning questions she had ever been asked by U of O students, Di was not tight-lipped.
“Honestly, this year with the pandemic I have received a number of concerning inquiries, one student asked me if it was normal to want to have sex with a ghost and another if it is acceptable to have do it while listening to Weezer.”
“It’s not.”
