The Oklahoma Daily

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TUESDAY JANUARY 19, 2010

THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT VOICE

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Family, friends mourn loss of OU student After reported missing for two days, senior found in overturned vehicle LEIGHANNE MANWARREN Daily Staff Writer

As the new semester begins, students prepare to get back to a normal routine, but for friends of Julia Kathryn Gilbert, the normal routine will be harder to fall into. Gilbert, French education senior and member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, was reported missing Jan. 8 and later found dead in her overturned silver 2002 Volkswagen Jetta Jan. 10. “Her life was short, but it was full,” said Reverend John Metzinger, St. John the Baptist Catholic

Church pastor during Gilbert’s funeral mass. “Julia was everything you could want in a best friend, student and person,” said Taurie Fraser, radiation therapy senior. “I will miss her every day.” The attendance of more than 600 people at Gilbert’s funeral was “proof of her ability to make friends wherever she went,” said Andy Collins, Gilbert’s friend. Friends remembered Gilbert as someone who loved to have fun, was passionate and who loved to play practical jokes on friends. Fraser, Gilbert’s friend since middle school, said one of Gilbert’s favorite practical jokes was to give out Fraser’s phone number to people because it was one of the only numbers she had

still memorized. Erica Pletan, international and area studies senior, who met Gilbert two summers ago while studying abroad in France, said Gilbert had a lot of passion that was hard to ignore. “Julia had an ability to just make friends so easily and we hit it off right away,” Pletan said. “I hadn’t known anyone when I was studying abroad, but she just took me under her wing and we became best friends soon after that.” G i l b e r t h a d b e e n a t a B C S Na t i o n a l Championship watch party at a friend’s house about five miles away from her parents’ house in Edmond and was last seen leaving her friend’s house at 3 a.m. Her vehicle was found almost 18 miles away on Waterloo Road near Council Road.

Students employ various methods to raise for Haiti From cooking to texting, students can find a way to get involved in relief efforts CHARLES WARD Daily Staff Writer

Michelle Sutherlin used to bake so she’d have something to bring to her Bible study group. Now, she, along with 22 other bakers, is whisking, chopping and blending to raise money for the Red Cross’ earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. Sutherlin, human relations graduate student, actually started her project, Confections for a Cause, last year as a fundraiser for the United Way of Norman. “We just didn’t have a lot of extra [money], so I decided that I needed to figure out a way to make my dollar go farther,” said Sutherlin, also an adjunct professor of AP PHOTO journalism. “And so, I started Rescue workers from Russia, Nicaragua, Peru and Israel team up to pull a woman from the rubble of a collapsed building in Port-aubrainstorming [about] what can I sell. What am I good at, Prince, Monday. The woman was one of two survivors pulled from the building just minutes apart from each other. what can I do?” With the help of a friend, friend of hers started the Initiative at Florida State University. she set up a Web site, www.confectionsforacause.com, and set a goal of Eventually, when the immediate needs of earthquake relief have passed, raising $500. Hoffman said the group will focus on ways to develop Haiti’s infrastructure, Confections eventually raised more than $2,500, which led Sutherlin to which was limited prior to the earthquake, according to the CIA World plan for another round of baking this year. Factbook. She also said she would like to send members of OU’s chapter of “We knew that it was really successful and we wanted to do it again,” she the Initiative to Haiti, when conditions in the country allow for it. said. “But we knew we had to do better this time. The group will hold its first meeting Jan. 26 at a campus location to be “Then the earthquake in Haiti happened, and my best friend called me determined. on Wednesday night and said ‘We’re baking for Haiti.’ And I said ‘OK, let’s Issac Freeman, international security studies senior, is also working to do it.’” raise money for Haiti relief. His goal is to have a table at Winter Welcome Confections is offering 27 menu items, including vegan and gluten-free Week events and around campus this week to raise money for Haiti. options. She said she plans to take orders through Feb. 8, but if demand “This is something I could do,” Freeman said. “I’m supportive of other warrants, she may extend the deadline. Orders can be picked up on four efforts and everything, but this is not instead of other things. This is on top different dates in the coming month at the Red Cross office in Norman, 1205 of all those things.” Halley Ave. Sutherlin also plans to add a drop-off day in Oklahoma City. Texting allows anyone with a cell phone and a few spare seconds to make Other OU students have plans of their own to help relief efforts in Haiti. a donation to a Haiti relief organization. Donations can be made with a text Amanda Hoffman, geography junior, laid the groundwork last semester to one of several different relief organizations, and spokespeople for Sprint, to start a chapter of the Global Haiti Initiative at OU. Verizon and AT&T stated in e-mails that those texts will not count against “We were just going to try to help in any way we could,” she said. customers’ texting plans, nor will they incur the usual texting fee. For the coming semester, however, Hoffman said the group’s efforts will Typically, when cell phone companies coordinate charitable giving focus on fundraising for earthquake relief in Haiti, and channeling that through text messaging, they wait until donors pay their phone bills before money to organizations that already have a presence in Haiti, such as the giving the funds to the designated charities, a process that can take 30 to Red Cross. 60 days, according to a statement on Sprint’s Web site. However, Sprint The Initiative is an intercollegiate clearinghouse for developmental is advancing 80 percent of the pledged donations immediately, Sprint programs in Haiti, according to the Initiative’s Web site. Hoffman said a HAITI CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

House candidate charged with DUI OU student, District 44 candidate admits ‘error in judgment’ CHARLES WARD Daily Staff Writer

An OU student who is running for the Oklahoma House of Representatives was charged with driving under the influence New Year’s Eve. Matthew Hecox, history senior, declined to discuss the charge on the record, but later released a

statement to The Daily. In an e-mail, he stated, “I made an out of character error in judgment by drinking and driving. I know this type behavior is unacceptable, not only for the office I am seeking, but as a community member in Norman. I am currently dealing with this issue, and I truly appreciate the support from my family, friends, and the community of Norman.” Hecox was pulled over for turning right on red somewhere in the 200 block of West Boyd Street,

according to documents available on the Oklahoma State Courts Network’s Web site. According to the documents, right turns against a red light are not permitted where Hecox made the turn. The officer who pulled Hecox over “detected an odor of alcoholic beverage consumption” on Hecox, along with red and watery eyes and slurred speech, according to the documents. The officer also noticed Hecox was slow and unsteady on his feet.

Hecox later refused to take a blood alcohol test, according to the documents. Hecox was released from the Cleveland County jail when he posted a $1,000 bond through a bail bondsman. His release on bond continued after a Jan. 8 hearing. His next scheduled court date is set for Feb. 9. Hecox announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the District 44 seat on Jan. 12.

GILBERT CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

Therapy reduces tumor size KATHLEEN EVANS Daily Staff Writer

O K L A H O M A C I T YChemotherapy coupled with a new microwave heat therapy from OU Health S ciences Center shows success in reducing large tumors. Because of the microwave t h e r a p y ’s s u c c e s s i n shrinking tumors, the number of women needing mastectomies, surgical breast removals, was reduced by 90 percent, said Dr. William Dooley, a researcher at the OU Cancer Institute and director of surgical oncology at OU Medicine. “This therapy is a major advancement for women w i t h l at e r-s t a g e b re a s t cancer,” Dooley said. “Right now, most patients with large tumors lose their breast. With this treatment, along with chemotherapy, we were able to kill the cancer and save the breast tissue.” Large tumors range in size from 1- to 1 1/2 inches and usually require a mastectomy, Dooley said. The therapy, called focused microwave thermotherapy, is similar to that used in the Star Wars defense system. Two microwaves intersect at the tumor, becoming stronger, and focus that energy on the tumor, Dooley said. During treatment, doctors heat the breast to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit, Dooley said. “ The microwave eats up the tumor cells much faster than it eats up the surrounding breast tissue,” he said. “We’re not exactly sure why this is. The best guess is that … tumors are saltier and have more ions in them than the breast tissue.” The therapy will also help those with breast cancer b e c a u s e i t w i l l re d u c e the number of needed chemotherapy treatments and their toxicity, Dooley said. Dooley is currently in the process of getting a redesigned machine approved by the Food and Drug Administration to start a new trial using the therapy on even larger cancer cells, ranging from 1 1/2- to 5 inches, he said. Ellen Hopper, a breast cancer patient from Tuttle, Okla., participated in one of Dooley’s trials on earlystage breast cancer after doctors found a lump in her breast during a routine mammogram, she said. Hopper decided not to undergo chemotherapy treatments but received one TUMOR CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

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