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bUllPeN ON Fire
L&A: Exhibit tells women’s stories through photography (Page 6)
sports: Relievers instrumental in big 12 (page 7)
stUDeNt OrGaNiZatiONs
OUDaily.com: Author discusses struggles with religious background researCh
homeless person may stay in Union Senior No plans made to evict homeless group member ARIANNA PICKARD campus editor
A week after The Daily discovered someone was living and drinking in an office in Oklahoma Memorial Union, it seems as if the person will get to continue living in the office for almost another month.
The Daily received a tip that someone had been drinking and possibly living in the Students for a Democratic Society office on April 4 and after further investigation, confirmed the information. After running a story about the situation in Tuesday’s paper, OU administration and the Student Government Association president - who has authority over who stays in the office – are not making plans to remove the
organization’s hold over the office, or evict the man living in it. After finding out the person living and drinking in the office was actually homeless, SGA President Joe Sangirardi said he didn’t want to be the person responsible for depriving someone of a place to stay. “I refuse to be put in a situation where I’m the person to force someone to be literally homeless, because it’s clear that the organization
is not going to support their own member,” Sangirardi said. “For an organization that’s known to advocate so much, they’re not even advocating for their own member … Instead forcing their member to live on an inadequate, small couch in an office for several months.” Sangirardi said he’s leaning toward letting the person stay in the see HOMELESS PAGe 2
iNterveNtiON
campus Reporter
Proactive intervention addresses stress AJINUR SETIWALDI campus Reporter
Distressed students, faculty and staff on the Norman campus may start receiving more attention as an intervention team works with the university community to reach out to individuals sooner to find them help. “There’s some people on campus who care about you, and they are concerned about you,” said Susan Sasso, chairwoman of the Behavior Intervention Team, describing how the team may approach individuals. “Would you be willing to come in and talk with us and see if there is some way we can help you?” The team was formalized in October 2012, to promote student, faculty and staff success and campus safety by identifying individuals who show signs of possible disruptive or violent behavior and intervening early on, according to the team’s website. Behavior intervention teams have become prominent on national campuses in the post
2007 Virginia Tech shooting era, according Kent Ray, OUPD captain, Joyce Allman, associto the National Behavior Intervention Team ate provost for academic advising, Katy Powers, Association. While care and behavior interven- OU Cares coordinator and Linda Patison, stution teams existed on camdent affairs financial ser“This is not a puses before Virginia Tech, vices director. The chair and their functions are dramatdisciplinary force or vice chair have received ically shifting to proactive training through National about being in trouble. Behavior Intervention Team prevention. O U h a s h a d a T h r e a t It’s about making sure Association, and there will be Assessment Review training this semester. we’re taking care of more Committee since the time of There are many dethe Virginia Teach incident, each other and helping p a r t m e nt s a ro u n d c a m Sasso said. The focus of OU’s pus and programs like each other.” Behavior Intervention Team Threat Assessment Review SuSan SaSSo, is to care and have concern for Committee and OU Cares that behaVioR inteRVention teaM members of the campus comcare and may have concerns chaiRwoMan munity who may be in distress. about individuals within the “This is not a disciplinary community, said Miller, vice force or about being in trouchairman of the team. ble,” Sasso said. “It’s about making sure we’re “The biggest value of [the team] is that it’s a taking care of each other and helping each other.” kind of central location any department can Sasso is associate vice president and asso- speak up and say ‘we’re concerned about someciate dean of students and member of Threat body,’” Miller said. “We can make sure they are Assessment Review Committee. OK and get them connected to resources.” Other members of the team include Scott Miller, University Counseling Center director, see BEHAVIOR PAGe 3
MONKs
Tibetan monks visit Norman, promote peace Local church has hosted the monks for the last five years KAITLYN UNDERWOOD campus Reporter
Two Tibetan monks stood in the center of a large room, hunched over a pile of colored sand, meticulously arranging the individual grains to form an intricate pattern—a sand Mandala, an ancient Tibetan art form. As they worked, the monks, dressed in crimson and gold robes, only looked up periodically to switch out the colored sand they were placing. They worked in front of a colorful shrine to the Dalai Lama, decorated with flowers and images of “His Holiness.” Fabric prayer flags in myriad colors hung overhead, and the sound of other monks chanting drifted in from a room to the rear. To their right sat a table holding bowls of the vibrant, rainbow sand they were using to craft the Mandala. They had brought color and a sense of life into the otherwise empty, brown room. These two monks were from a group of nine that have come to Norman to share
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their message of world peace and to raise awareness about the endangered ancient culture of Tibet. On Saturday, they will sweep away the sand Mandala and hours of hard work, destroying their creation to symbolize the impermanence of the material world, according to a press release. The monks are here with the Mystical Arts of Tibet tour, an organization that sends Tibetan monks around the world to share their culture. When the monks are not on tour, they reside at Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc. in Atlanta. A local organization, The Indigenous Cultural Preservation Project, sponsored the monks’ stay in Norman this year. This is St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church’s fifth year to host the monks, and church officials see it as an honor, said Diana Hanson, office manager for the church. “We accept every member of the community,” Hanson said. “We really see it as a privilege to have them here.” The monks kicked off their stay with an ryAn BoyCe/tHe dAiLy opening ceremony Wednesday afternoon, which included a traditional chanting a group of tibetan monks carefully fill in the outline of a tradisee PEACE PAGe 3
Day devoted to undergrad testing SHELBY GUSKIN
ILLUSTRATION BY AUSTIN MCCROSKIE
Groups strives to be proactive in intervention situations
enjoys time in lab
tional Mandala design using tiny amounts of colored sand applied by scraping specialized metal tools.
While many students go to parties and spend time with friends during their spare time, one instead stays in a laboratory, working to revolutionize the way we look at major health issues. Madison Easterday, chemical engineering senior, is working with a team of researchers who are trying to create a blood vessel to help c h a n g e t h e w a y d o ctors operate on patients with blocked arteries. Easterday focuses on a small part of research, testing the new tissue for its ability to stand up to the trials of being a part of the human body. “We have not created it so much as prolonged a part of it,” Easterday said. “These cells are already alive. We are not creating life here, we are just taking the potential for it and letting it flourish.” This is just an example of the type of research undergraduates are doing at OU. One of the ways those students are featured is through Undergraduate Re s e a rc h Day , w h i c h gives students the opportunity to do the research in a field they’re interested in and then present it to the general public. For Easterday, it’s more than that. “I think it’s important to the students of OU, because if we want to have graduate students see ARTERIES PAGe 2
Benefit tonight to help “aged-out” foster children L&A: two oU organizations to raise money for Camellia network through ‘nonFilm’ event. (Page 6)
Guns should be registered just like vehicles Opinion: U.s. Congress should pass new firearms bill calling for universal gun registration for gun shows and private sales. (Page 4)
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