The Oklahoma Daily

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Intelligence officials to speak with students • National security colloquium to tackle ethical issues in intelligence JAMIE HUGHES Daily Staff Writer

Photo provided

Former Bond girl Famke Janssen will speak on campus today as part of United Nations Day. Janssen is a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador.

Students have the opportunity to discuss legal and moral issues surrounding intelligence-gathering with officials from national intelligence agencies on campus today. OU Outreach will hold a colloquium on national security studies from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Thurman J. White Forum Building, located between 4th Street and Timberdell Road on Asp Avenue. Featuring representatives from Homeland Security, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, the event’s afternoon session will focus on legal and ethical issues in intelligence.

Cal Hobson, executive director for operations at OU Outreach, said events like this have been held at other universities, but this is the first time OU has played host to one. Students are welcome to discuss and even criticize what they’ve heard about government intelligence agencies, event organizers said. “They will have every opportunity to learn more direct [information] with high ranking officials,” Hobson said. “[It’s] something I never had the opportunity to experience when in school.” The morning session will be about diversity recruitment in intelligence agencies. The panel will be comprised of people with a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Panel member Joe Watkins, director of the Native American studies program, said the CIA has already contacted him about recruiting Native Americans for employment in the agency. Hobson said diversity is crucial for effective intelligence-gathering.

“After 9/11 happened, intelligence was heavily criticized for being wrong about weapons of mass destruction,” he said. “What was lacking was human intelligence, people who could speak the languages of the Middle East. We didn’t have enough people who understood the culture there, not enough [people] with the language and ethnic skills [in the areas] where people don’t love us.” Panel member Rita Aragon, director of advanced programs, said human intelligence is a weakness for the Department of Defense because the organization doesn’t have enough people on the ground in hostile areas. “It’s very important to have human intelligence,” she said. Students will also have the opportunity to speak with officials and are encouraged to bring resumes. Intelligence officials will provide information about potential careers and scholarship opportunities. The registration deadline was Thursday night, but there will be plenty of room for those who didn’t preregister, Hobson said.

‘X-Men’ star visits OU as part of UN role

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Want to know how to make your own Halloween costume? The Daily’s Jon McKeeman is here to tell you. Read Fashion Friday in A&E. Page 5.

SPORTS Every year, a non-BCS team jumps into BCS bowl contention with an outstanding season. So who will it be this year? The Daily debates in this week’s Friday Face-off. Page 8.

• Event marks 63rd anniversary of UN’s founding

CAMPUS BRIEFS

JAMIE HUGHES Daily Staff Writer Dutch actress Famke Janssen joins professors, faculty members and students today in celebration of United Nations Day. The focus of this year’s celebrations will be on gender issues within the U.N., its importance in solving international human rights issues like human trafficking and the organization’s overall importance in global rights. United Nations Day marks the founding of the U.N. on Oct. 24, 1945. “[The U.N. is] not perfect, but it’s needed,” said Zach Messitte vice provost for International Programs Center. “[It’s] deeply poised to address issues because it’s an international organization.” Janssen, a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador, will hold two discussions at OU. She will lead a discussion on acting at 3 p.m. in Beaird Lounge with Thomas Huston Orr, director of the School of Drama. Janssen will discuss human trafficking with Jill Irvine, associate professor of religious studies and director of the women’s studies program, during a dinner at 7 p.m. in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. A trailer of Janssen’s newest film, “Taken,” will be shown at the dinner to promote awareness of human trafficking. Janssen plays a mother of a child who is sold into slavery. The main goal of the day is to raise awareness about pressing human rights issues that the U.N. supports, Messitte said. “It’s terribly important to draw attention on the part of human rights,” Irvine said. “It’s sometimes easy for people to look to individual countries for human rights issues. People should be more aware of the U.N.’s role in the issues,

UN Continues on page 2

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art names new curator

Clark McCaskill/The Daily

University College freshman Kennedy Winn and physics professor Stewart Ryan execute Ryan’s “bed of nails” demonstration Wednesday in Nielsen Hall. This demonstration is used to show the effect of distribution of pressure over a surface area.

OU’s ‘nutty’ professors • Wild antics, humor show a different side of the classroom TIFFANY HAENDEL Daily Staff Writer tewart Ryan doesn’t don the traditional professor’s uniform. Instead each day he makes a point to wear Pi-inspired parody T-shirts to class. Tuesday’s shirt bore a drawing of fangs in the shape of a Pi symbol with the word “VamPire” written underneath. Ryan, a physics professor with 31 years of experience, is one of several OU professors who uses non-traditional antics like humor, cartoons and demonstrations to teach. Briana Bliss, communications sophomore, said she enrolled in physics for nonmajors specifically to have Stewart as a professor. “I heard he was funny and made it easy so you could understand it,” Bliss said. Ryan begins each class with

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a cartoon and then announces “Viewer Mail” by blowing into a giant seashell. “Viewer Mail” is an outlet for Ryan to clarify physics concepts to students who are embarrassed to ask questions in class. He said the purpose of the mailbox is to get students engaged in class, and the idea came to him from a former OU math professor. “Sometimes there is physics in the mailbox, but it’s usually a joke of some kind or another. And so students can put that in, but if they don’t, I have a file here, and I pull out an appropriate one from a past semester,” Ryan said. Ryan also incorporates everyday examples into his lecture to help students relate to the material. He said the more outlandish the demonstrations, the better the lesson “There are usually a lot of props. Some of them are sort of ho-hum and some of them are fun. It’s important to keep attention, and sometimes you have to be a little bit out in left field,” he said. The demonstrations range from inflating a hydrogen-filled

Arts scholar and educator Mark Andrew White was named Thursday as the inaugural holder of the Eugene B. Adkins Curatorship at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum MARK ANDREW of Art. WHITE “The university is very pleased to have a person of Mark White’s outstanding background to serve in this important curatorship,” OU President David L. Boren said in a press release. The Adkins collection contains more than 3,300 Native American and Taos pieces, including paintings, pottery, jewelry and silverwork. A 6,500 square-foot addition will be added to the museum to house the exhibit.

TODAY’S INDEX A&E Campus Notes Classifieds Crossword Horoscope

5 7 6 6 7

Campus News Opinion Police Reports Sports Sudoku

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WEATHER FORECAST

TODAY LOW 38° HIGH 63°

SATURDAY LOW 41° HIGH 68°

SUNDAY LOW 49° HIGH 72° Source: Oklahoma Weather Lab Clark McCaskill/The Daily

Winn stands on Ryan as part of the demonstration. Ryan uses NUTTY Continues on page 2 unconventional methods and experiments in his teaching.


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