The Oklahoma Daily

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MONDAY FEBRUARY 22, 2010

TTHE HE UNIVERSITY UN NIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT VOICE

ANYTIME AT

TUESDAY’S

Saturday’s rain didn’t stop Sooner basketball fans from collecting shoes for Kenyan orphans. See page 3.

The Sooners So faced the Ka Kansas State Wildcats Sunday, Wildca recap on o page 7.

Weather

OU’s production of “The Vagina Monologues” begins tonight. See page 5.

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NON-DISCRIMINATION UPDATE PASSED Graduate Student Senate recommends new phrasing be added to equal opportunity statement TROY WEATHERFORD Daily Staff Writer

The UOSA Graduate Student Senate passed a bill to amend OU’s non-discrimination policy that would protect gay, lesbian and transgender students Sunday night. The bill, however, does not state “gay, lesbian and transgender,” but recommends that “personal expressions of

sexualities” be added to the OU Board of Regents Equal Opportunity Statement. “This has taken two years guys, I think we ought to applaud [the passage of the bill] heartily,” said Susan Adams-Johnson, Senate chairwoman. The legislation should please Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Friends and other groups, said Derrell Cox Senate secretary. “There are other issues that affect people [besides sexual expression], such as gender expression and gender identity,” Cox said. No senators voted against the bill.

The resolution will next be heard by the UOSA Undergraduate Student Congress. “I’m happy for it to pass, we’ll see how it goes through (the) Undergrad Congress,” Cox said. “It has some significant obstacles to be overcome to be heard by the [OU Board of Regents].” Cox said the bill was influenced by a UOSA Rep. Shayna Daitch’s resolution, but that it had been changed significantly. For that reason, Cox said, she was not named as a co-author of the bill. “It has the potential to really influence people’s lives for the good,” Cox said.

New Miss Black OU crowned

MARCIN RUTKOWSKI / THE DAILY

Kenisha Lloyd poses one last time in her evening dress as a Miss Black OU candidate Sunday night at the Sooner Theatre on Main Street. Lloyd would go on to be crowned the new Miss Black OU 2010-2011. For more information and full story on the Ms. Black OU 2010-2011 peageant, visit OUDaily.com.

Colombian Night venue changed Colombian Student Association moves event to accommodate record-setting crowd, adviser says DANIELA MCCORMICK Daily Staff Writer

The Colombian Student Association is relocating its annual Colombian Night due to increase in attendance. This year’s event will take place Saturday at the Paul F. Sharp Concert Hall in Catlett Music Center, after previous years at Meacham Auditorium in the Oklahoma Memorial Union. “I’ve been waiting for years to have Sharp Hall,” said Yoana Samper de Walschap, Colombian Student Association adviser and treasurer. “We’ve always sold out — we’ve had to leave people outside.” Attendance has increased every year, she said. Previous events have been so overcrowded the organization needed to set up screens outside Meacham to let overflow watch the presentation. Pab l o Ba raja s, C o l o m b i a n St u d e nt Association president, said there are 100 meal-and-show tickets and 200 show tickets remaining for Saturday’s event. COLSA is the only Colombian student association in the state and people come from afar for its annual event, he said. “We’re expecting people from Houston, Dallas, Tulsa and Oklahoma City,” Barajas said. “It motivates us to give more. We put in a lot of time and effort.” Barajas and Samper de Walschap said the theme for this year’s event is “Amazing Places, Amazing Faces.” Members are to perform dances from all five regions of Colombia: the Amazons, the Andes, the Caribbean coast, the Pacific coast and the Plains. “We’re showing diversity of our food, of our different aspects of the music [and] of the dances,” Barajas said. He said 40 percent of COLSA is non-Colombian, with the majority from other Latin American countries, but he said that’s not always the case. COLSA member Pyone Lwin Muang, 2008 graduate of zoology and biomedical sciences, is Burmese, with Spanish as her third language. Muang said she enjoys dancing and being a part of the organization. “I love it,” Muang said. “I learned Spanish back in college. This is helping me relearn the language.” She is expecting to perform a dance from the Caribbean region, made up of three smaller dances: the Bullerengue, the Garabato and the Champeta. Barajas, a graduate from La Universidad Industrial de Santander, said Colombian Night means more than just the presentation itself; it is a way for COLSA alumni to give back. Scholarships are awarded at the end of the show. “We’re blessed that we’re here,” Barajas said. “Most of us have a scholarship.” Samper de Walschap said the scholarship donations increase every year. She said last year, $12,000 in scholarships were awarded to COLSA members, and this year, it will increase to $18,000. “Colombian Night allows graduates to help OU and help Colombians at OU,” Samper de Walschap said.

State trims higher education budget 3.5 percent Federal stimulus, Rainy Day Fund help keep education cuts low, President Boren says RICKY MARANON Assignment Editor

Higher education will receive a 3.5 percent cut from state appropriations, a member of the Oklahoma House appropriations committee said Friday at a townhall forum. Rep. Scott Martin, R-Newcastle, told a small crowd consisting of students and Norman residents at the

Norman Chamber of Commerce that while the average rate of state funding cut is 7.5 percent in other departments, higher education was able to come out with a lower percentage of cuts after budget negotiations were finished. “I think this agreement that we’ve come to in the budget shows that we are not like Congress and the president. We can get things done and also be bipartisan,” Martin said. Martin said the committee reached a consensus on how much of the state’s Rainy Day Fund should

be used in comparison to the amount of federal stimulus money that could be to fill the state’s $700 million budget shortfall. OU President David Boren stated by e-mail that he is pleased with the agreement that has been reached, but he expects more budget cuts in the next fiscal year. “The 3.1 percent cut is the size that we have been anticipating for this year, which ends July 1,” Boren stated. “We greatly appreciate the efforts of the governor and legislative leaders for their efforts to keep education cuts as low as possible.

Without stimulus money and the Rainy Day Fund, the size of our cuts would be truly destructive to the standards of excellence at OU.” Boren stated he will try to keep tuition and fee increases to a minimum as the budget for the next year is being determined. “Looking forward, it appears that the budget agreement will require additional cuts in our budget of 5 to 10 percent for the budget year that begins on July 1, 2010,” Boren stated. “We are hoping to keep tuition and fee adjustments as low as possible for next year and holding

budget cuts to the lower end of that spectrum would be very helpful.” Rep. Bill Nations, D-Norman, Oklahoma House Higher Education and Career Tech Committee vice chairman, explained in the townhall that the current economic situation is similar to the oil bust of the 1980s, but said a change in attitude of the importance of higher education could be credited to higher education receiving only a 3.5 percent cut this fiscal year. “Twelve years ago, I would advocate for more higher education dollars to go to OU, and all people BUDGET CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

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VOL. 95, NO. 102


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