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Opinion: Native American Heritage month offers students cultural opportunities (Page 3)
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Sports: OU looks to rebound on the road (Page 3)
Sooners meet Cyclones
‘Sesame Street’ meets ‘South Park’ Profane puppets take stage in ‘Avenue Q’
OUDaily.com: Life & Arts columnist Colby Frederick reviews ‘Avenue Q’
INTERFRATERNITY COUNCIL
Candidates discuss diversity, alcohol policies in debate
HEATHER BROWN/THE DAILY
Drew Knox (left), marketing and finance junior and Spencer Falcon (right), biochemistry junior, talk between rounds at the Interfraternity Council Presidential Debate on Thursday night. Knox and Falcon are both candidates for IFC president.
Candidates seek to unite fraternities on campus and maintain competition ELYSSA SZKIRPAN Campus Reporter
Candidates for Interfraternity Council President discussed issues ranging from recruitment to stereotypes in the greek community and the campus alcohol policy at the annual IFC Presidential Debate on Thursday from 7 to 8 p.m. in Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Will Rogers Room. Spencer Falcon, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon and biochemistry junior, is running with the intent of helping IFC chapters achieve greater academic success, IFC President Nick Coffey said. Falcon also is set on reviewing IFC’s recruitment processes to help chapters of smaller size grow in number, Coffey said. Falcon has held several positions within his fraternity, ranging from intramural chairman to philanthropy chairman, according to Coffey. Falcon said his desire to run for IFC president began with his dedication to the fraternities. “My motivation for running for IFC president stems from you guys,” Falcon said during the debate. “I want to make IFC more transparent.” Falcon specifically touched on issues of increasing diversity within smaller houses to help promote their house sizes, as well as unite the fraternities on campus, while maintaining friendly competition between them. Marketing and finance junior Drew Knox is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha and the current IFC vice president of programming. Knox concentrated his platform on IFC responsibilities, including alcohol policies, aiding smaller fraternities in their recruitments and housing during the debate. “IFC serving fraternities is its first priority,” Knox said. “We want to randomize the [alcohol policy] and hold houses accountable. We want to work with student conduct and continue this relationship. It’s near impossible to change this policy, so we need to work [together].” Falcon also agreed with promoting more tolerance
RICARDO PATINO/ THE DAILY
Top: The cast of ‘Avenue Q’ sing during the opening act during dress rehearsal in the Rupel Jones Theater on Nov 1. ‘Avenue Q’ is directed by Shawn Churchman and under the musical direction of Harold Mortimer. ‘Avenue Q’ is for mature audiences and opens today.
Right: Jamie Butemyer (front right), with Lucy The Slut, and Courtney Nevin (back left), with Kate Monster, perform during dress rehearsal for ‘Avenue Q’ on Nov. 1. The play follows the story of a recent college graduate who moves into a New York apartment.
SEE DEBATE PAGE 2
ACADEMICS
HISTORY
Column: Ask questions before you vote on Nov. 6
OU expanding digital materials World War II
collections catalogued
Plan to enhance classroom experience
Items in poor condition, left in limbo for 70 years
EMMA HAMBLEN Campus Reporter
OU has launched a digital initiative calling for faculty to implement new learning technologies in the classroom. The initiative is based on creating a more dynamic learning experience and lowering costs for students, said Mark Morvant, executive director of the Center for Teaching Excellence. This initiative w ill focus on maintaining what OU excels at and enhancing it with digital formats. President David Boren announced the digital initiative in a letter to OU faculty in August. OU must challenge itself to use videos and online courses materials to allow more time for discussion, student engagement and hands-on experiences in the classroom, Boren said in the letter. These technological implementations, however, should not replace classroom
ELYSSA SZKIRPAN Campus Reporter
2007 FILE PHOTO/SOONER YEARBOOK
Dr. Rufus J. Fears, one of OU’s most beloved professors, recorded a series of lectures for Freedom 101 just before he passed away. These lectures are available on OU’s iTunes U page.
learning, Boren said. The initiative seeks to leverage a number of tools such as iTunes U and iBooks to enhance students’ learning, said Nick Hathaway, OU executive vice president and vice president of administration and finance. iTunes U is a library of digital video content that the university and academic community can tap into, Hathaway said. It has a strong
educational component, and OU has developed an iTunes U presence through lecture series like “Teach-In on America’s Founding.” The power of the platform makes it an effective way to distribute content, Hathaway said. He said he hopes this video library can eventually be used as a tool for professors who want to have students SEE ITUNES PAGE 2
Collections dating back to World War II in OU’s Sam Noble Museum of Natural History are just now being cataloged by OU student volunteers after a delay of about seventy years. The cataloging process for these collections came to a halt after 1941, said Jenna Domeischel, volunteer and graduate student. “It is an amazing experience to look at something that has never been catalogued, essentially left in limbo for over 70 years,” she said. “Knowing why it was abandoned also adds another level of history, connecting those artifacts to a historic event within our cultural memory.” Certain collections need more immediate attention than others,
and the collections excavated by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and 1940s are in need of the most care, said Elsbeth Dowd, collections manager for the archeology collection, in an email. “The sheer quantity of material excavated during these periods and the poor quality of the materials the artifacts were once stored in (brown paper bags and thin sandwich baggies that are now disintegrating) make these collections a high priority,” Dowd said. A amount of items excavated during the time period and the disintegrating brown paper bags and then sandwich baggies that were used to store the artifacts make these collections a high priority, Dowd said. Cataloging is a neverending process, she said.
Opinion: Columnist Sarah Sullivan urges voters to research candidates’ record before voting. (online at OUDaily.com)
Women’s basketball dominates debut Sports: Sooners defeat Oklahoma Christian University 118-53 in season opener. (online at OUDaily.com)
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