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Bugs infest Oklahoma State dorms Bed bugs found in two rooms at Oklahoma State residence halls; OU’s dorms d m not affectedd

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

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Past course evaluations now available Student UOSA, Provost’s office facilitate online access to class, professor information

ONLINE AT OUDAILY.COM » Link: Download course evaluations

CHASE COOK The Oklahoma Daily

For the first time at OU, students can log online to see course evaluations from past semesters. UOSA Department of Academics coordinator Zekiel Johnson said he kept hearing the same question from students: “Why would you do an evaluation if you never got any advantage from that data?” The system debuted Tuesday, after Johnson and members of the Provost’s office spent almost a year and a half working on it.

“There are other services like myedu.com that offer similar services,” Johnson said. “But there is nothing that can take the raw information data that we as students produce here.” The website lists each college with a drop down menu, allowing users to select specific semesters and years. This leads users to a comprehensive list of professors and their corresponding classes. The information includes enrollment size, except for classes below four students, and percentages

compiled from five questions that are context sensitive to each course. This data is used by the Provost to determine where a professor’s strength lies to reward tenure. Johnson said the data is not 100 percent complete yet. Professors can opt out of making the information public, and not every college used the standardized evaluations in the past. “On occasion, UOSA would get these huge thick binders of [evaluation information] printed out for one or two colleges, but it was spotty,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t followed up on.” German instructor and language coordinator Jason Williamson said it should be good for students

because “it’s more transparency.” Provost Nancy Mergler said the new online course evaluation system will help them keep the information available for students for future semesters, but since the program is so new, the length of time for publication has yet to be determined; however, students should help keep the information available and accurate. “It’s not the only way in which the university evaluates teaching, but it’s an important component,” Mergler said. U O S A’s D e p a r t m e n t o f Academics also plans to develop advising evaluations and a standardized advising document to help students get accurate graduation checks.

OU, OSU ask campaign to pull ad New proposal would cause tuition increases at state universities, presidents say LEIGHANNE MANWARREN The Oklahoma Daily

OU and Oklahoma State University presidents ask supporters of State Question 744 to take a commercial off the air. According to the ballot language, State Question 744 would set the minimum average amount Oklahoma must annually spend on common schools to match the average spending of the surrounding states within three years. In a joint statement made by OU President David Boren and OSU President Burns Hargis, both argued the commercial should be removed because “very large tuition increases will be necessary if the State Question passes” and students might “believe that the universities are supporting the proposal.” The ad shows families watching television — one wearing OU’s colors while the other is wearing OSU gear — get upset when their teams lose to Texas and Missouri, respectively. Neither university authorized the use of their school logos for the ad or support the proposal, Boren and Hargis said in the statement. “Passage of State Question 744 is likely to lead to multimillion dollar cuts in higher education and could force tuition and cost increases for our students and their families ranging from 15 to 20 percent per year for up to three years in a

Congress neglects duties Possible violations of Oklahoma statutes, Open Meetings Act KATHLEEN EVANS The Oklahoma Daily

Editor’s note: At press time, the Student Congress website was being updated with current and past agendas, after being questioned by Daily reporters. Members of the UOSA Undergraduate Student Congress have allegedly neglected to follow Oklahoma state statues and the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act this year as a public body. Failing to update its website and post meeting agendas and minutes online since 2009, Student Congress officials are in apparent violation of Oklahoma state statutes. Additionally, Congress has allegedly neglected to file meeting notices with the county clerk in a timely manner in apparent violation of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act. Memebers of Student Congress control a portion of the $589,688 given to UOSA from the state, according to the OU Norman operating budget report.

OKLAHOMA STATE STATUTES

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A group of actors portraying Sooner fans sit in front of a TV in a campaign commercial for State Question 744. OU and Oklahoma State University, which also had actors portray Cowboys fans, are upset because the commercial uses their logos without authorization from the universities. row,” Boren and Hargis said in the statement. If the average amount spent on education by surrounding states declines, Oklahoma must spend the amount it spent the year before, the ballot language states. “We strongly support improved funding for kindergarten through 12th grade education; however, State Question 744 provides no revenue sources to pay for its mandates,” Boren and Hargis said. While the proposal will not raise taxes, without new revenue sources for the proposed SEE TV AD PAGE 2 PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHANIE ROACH/THE DAILY

Activist promotes feminism in Islam Liberal lifestyle, abstaining from wearing hijab doesn’t keep her from practicing religion, professor says NATASHA GOODELL Contributing Writer

A diverse group of 45 students and faculty gathered over a traditional Middle Eastern dinner Wednesday night to listen to and discuss contemporary Islamic issues facing society. Mona Eltahawy, OU’s activist-in-residence for the Center for Social Justice and professor of a three-week course, was the honorary guest at the dinner hosted by Joshua Landis, Walker Tower faculty-in-residence. Landis, director for the Center for Middle East Studies, organized the event to cultivate open discussion about

Eltahawy’s experiences as an activist working to promote women’s freedoms in Islam. Eltahawy, journalist and public speaker, abstains from wearing the hijab and leads a more liberal lifestyle than conservative Muslims, but she said she doesn’t think that should keep her from practicing her religion. “God belongs to me too and I will not give God up because of all those lunatics out there,” Eltahawy said. “For me, Islam is more than rituals and for all the rules of ‘do’ and ‘don’t’.” For Eltahawy, her fight against these rules started when she moved from London to Saudi Arabia when she was 15 years old. Eltahawy said she found a very misogynistic Islam in the Middle Eastern country. At first, she wore the hijab to fit in with the society, but when

A LOOK AT WHAT’S NEW AT View highlights from the Sooner volleyball team’s conference opener Wednesday against Texas Tech

she started university in Saudi Arabia, she found books written by scholarly women that changed her way of thinking. She said learning about and defying religious standards set by men was daunting at first, but she eventually took on an activist role. “Choose the thing that scares you the most because what terrifies you is usually what you need,” Eltahawy said. Eltahawy now fights to ban the wearing of hijabs and disagrees with feminists who fight for the women’s rights to choose whether or not to wear the hijab. “Don’t sacrifice women for the sake of fighting that right wing because when you fight this right wing so much, you ignore the right wing telling women they need to disappear [behind a hijab],” Eltahawy said.

THE OKLAHOMA DAILY VOL. 96, NO. 26 © 2010 OU Publications Board www.facebook.com/OUDaily www.twitter.com/OUDaily

INDEX Campus .............. 2 Classifieds .......... 7 Life & Arts ........... 8 Opinion .............. 4 Sports ................ 5

Student Congress allegedly broke state statues by not updating its website with agendas, minutes and meeting notices from last spring’s and this fall’s meetings or update it with current names of members. The website is currently under construction so it will be easier for members to update and use, Student Congress Chairman Brett Stidham said. A public body needs to post meeting notices, agendas and minutes on its website, according to state statute 74 section 3106.2. Meeting agendas have not been posted at congress.ou.edu since Nov. 19, 2009, and minutes have not been posted since Dec. 1, 2009. The member directory is from the 2009-2010 school year, as of press time. Because the website is under construction, Stidham said he has e-mailed agendas and minutes to members. “The law says if they have a website they have to update it, but that’s a unique question,” said Freedom of Information Oklahoma board member and former president Joey Senat referring to the website maintenance. “I’ve never heard that one before.” Technical difficulties might be excusable, but not having someone on staff who knows how to update the website is not a valid reason, he said. The Student Congress website is expected to be updated within the next few weeks, said Stidham, human resources management senior. “I went to a training course with the Web developer earlier this week,” Stidham said. “We’re updating everything over the next week, week and a half. We’re doing a couple more trainings for some of our members.” Graduate Student Senate Chairman Silas DeBoer said in an e-mail that his organization encountered problems trying to update its website, but managed to figure them out before the school

SEE CONGRESS PAGE 2

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