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Boren sets goal Expelled student apologizes of inclusivity Fraternity councils discuss the future with OU’s president BRITTNEY BENNETT Staff Reporter @brittmbennett
JON HOOVER Staff Reporter @HoovSports
OU President David Boren held a mandatory “family meeting” with various fraternity councils today at the Catlett Music Center to encourage members to stand against racism after the Sigma Alpha Epsilon incident. Members from the Interfraternity Council, National PanHellenic Council and the Multicultural Greek Council were present at the
mandatory meeting, which focused on events surrounding the leaked video of SAE members singing a racist chant on a date party bus. The meeting was held in Catlett’s Paul F. Sharp Concert Hall. Some attending fraternity members were forced to stand in attendance after they filled the 1,018-seat hall to capacity. Boren opened the meeting by greeting members and telling them it was important for the councils to come together and discuss how to make the campus more inclusive. “What we do and how we handle this moment is going to really shape our university for years to come,” Boren said. SEE FRATERNITY PAGE 2
SAE freshman speaks out about video appearance ANDREW CLARK News Reporter @Clarky_Tweets
AMBER FRIEND News Reporter @amberthefriend
Recently expelled OU S i g ma A l p ha Ep s i l o n freshman Levi Pettit apologized for his actions featured in a viral video in a press conference this afternoon alongside black community leaders, OU students and local pastors. Pettit and Parker Rice, another former SAE member, were expelled after being identified in a leaked video of SAE members singing a racist chant on a date party bus.
CHRISTOPHER MICHIE/THE DAILY
Former OU Student Levi Pettit makes his first public apology Wednesday afternoon at Fairview Missionary Baptist Church.
Oklahoma Sen. Anastasia Pittman opened the conference, located at Fairview Missionary Baptist Church, and explained that she had shared a private meeting with Pettit and was prepared to move forward in light of
the event. “We have hope for our healing,” Pittman said. “The state of Oklahoma has issues that we need to talk about, and we’ve done that, and this is just the beginning of a great conversation.”
Pettit took the podium after Pittman, saying his meeting with many black community leaders helped him understand the reality of the black experience. SEE SAE PAGE 2
TURNING UP FOR TRANSIT
JJ/THE DAILY
Chemical engineering freshman Farah Naqvi, advertising junior Tory Looney and petroleum engineering freshman Sean Christiansen promote the Student Government Assocation’s Turn Up For Transit campaign on the South Oval Wednesday. The campaign encourages students to carpool and bike to campus.
Meet the three candidates competing for CAC chair Campus to vote on council position starting March 31 PAGE JONES
Assistant Managing Editor @pageousm
For the first time, the OU Campus Activities Council Chair election is held separately from the OU Student Government Association presidential election, and unlike the past uncontested presidential elections, it promises a competitive race between three candidates: John Pham Pre-med psychology junior John Pham currently
serves as treasurer on CAC’s Executive Council. Pham has been a member of CAC since his freshman year, when he started out working on finding sponsors for Howdy Week. “I applied to be Howdy Week chair, and when I didn’t get it the new chair asked me if I wanted to be in charge of sponsorship,” Pham said. Pham was not impressed by his first experience with CAC. He said that he felt CAC’s sponsorship department lacked leadership and he learned little about CAC as a whole. When he was finished with Howdy Week, he thought he would never work with it again.
Instead of being upset about his new position, Pham decided to look at what he didn’t like about his experience and try to improve it for other students. He made several changes to the sponsorship positions to ensure that the students serving in those positions would get the most out of their experience. Pham moved on to work with Winter Welcome Week and then to his current position. Pham said that his position as treasurer is what motivated him to run for CAC chair. “[It] has given me the opportunity to see CAC as a whole and look at where we
can improve,” Pham said. One area of improvement he would like to see is to incorporate more diversity into CAC. Pham said to some people, CAC seems like an exclusive club and that is not what it should be. “I am running because I want to bridge the gap between CAC and the student body as a whole,” Pham said. “I feel I have the knowledge and the experience to be able to do that and create a more inclusive CAC.” Pham wants to make three changes to CAC. First, he wants to make CAC more accessible. Pham feels that if more students can apply, they will have more diversity
by default because they will be able to choose from a larger pool of applicants. He hopes to encourage all types of diversity, not just racial diversity. “Whether it’s what your hobbies are, what your ideas are, how you think, where you come from, if we increase our pool we’re going to have more diversity,” Pham said. Next, Pham wants build cohesion between the members of CAC to prevent CAC members from feeling excluded. Pham wants to encourage members to come together and form friendships with other members. “CAC gives you a lot of knowledge, but it’s the feeling
of family that makes you want to stick around,” Pham said. Lastly, Pham said that he wanted to develop members into leaders so they can get the most experience from CAC as possible. Matt Rogers Matt Rogers is a marketing and sports management junior. This past year he served as chair of Winter Welcome Week. Matt first joined C AC during an open house his freshman year. He joined the Winter Welcome Week committee and remained on the committee as vice-chair during his sophomore year. SEE ELECTION PAGE 3
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