Wednesday, April 8, 2020

W e d n e s day, A p r i l 8 , 2 0 2 0

‘Everybody needs to see football’ Starting May 1, Gundy wants to begin the process of bringing football back to campus

C OV E R S T O RY

Gundy determined for football to return to campus despite pandemic Ha llie Hart Staf f R epo rter @ ha lliehart

In the midst of a global health crisis, Mike Gundy insisted that fans and the economy will need football season.

Gundy, the Oklahoma State football coach, has brainstormed a strategy for bringing his team back to campus despite the COVID-19 pandemic, but this is no official plan.

He said he hadn’t discussed his idea with Burns Hargis, OSU’s president. He hadn’t talked about it with Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

Instead, he shared his plan during a media teleconference that lasted about an hour Tuesday morning. Gundy said starting May 1, staff members would undergo testing for COVID-19 and return to work if they were healthy. Next, the players would trickle back onto campus. He said he isn’t 100% sure it can happen, but it’s his idea.

“In my opinion, if we have to bring our players back, test them, they’re in good shape, “ Gundy said. “They’re all 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old.

They’re healthy, a lot of them can fight it off with their natural body, the antibodies and build that they have. There’s some people that are asymptomatic.”

This comment, along with Gundy’s general message, received its

Adam Luther/O’Colly

In a media teleconference, OSU coach Mike Gundy discussed his ideas about bringing his team back to campus for football practices. The Big 12 has prohibited practices until May 31 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

share of unfavorable responses. The headline of Dan Wolken’s USA Today column about the situation reads “Opinion: Mike Gundy’s latest ridiculous comments out of touch with reality of coronavirus,” and Pat Forde wrote a Sports Illustrated column that sarcastically referred to Gundy as “Noted Expert.”

On Tuesday evening, OSU issued a statement in reaction to the ideas Gundy discussed. The statement did not include any quotes from Gundy, but it said the university

will follow the counsel of public health specialists and will obey directives from the federal government, the state government and the Big 12. Stillwater is under a shelter-in-place order that is effective until April 16, and the Big 12 has prohibited in-person team activities, including practices, until May 31.

“We will not compromise the health and well-being of our campus community,” OSU’s statement said. “This virus is deadly and we will do our part at Oklahoma State to help blunt the

spread.”

Gundy said he would be willing for players to be sequestered on campus after they are tested if that’s what it takes for them to safely return to football practice. The NCAA has a rule against providing dormitories for only student-athletes, but Gundy advocated for undoing this regulation.

“That rule’s got to go out the window,” Gundy said. “Here’s why. Because we’ve never been in a situation like this.”

Gundy also said the Cowboys would play in empty stadiums if neces-

sary. Despite the rapid changes across the globe because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gundy emphasized his determination in making sure football

“Everybody needs to see football.

Even if you just watch it on TV, it’s going to make people feel better, OK?”

Mike Gundy Coach

games can happen.

“Everybody needs to see football,” Gundy said.

“Even if you just watch it on TV, it’s going to make people feel better, OK? “…We’re trying to find a way to pay everybody’s salary and keep the economy going, because if you’re paying salaries and people are working, then you’re keeping the economy going, and it gives us the best chance as a state to stay on our feet. So yes, if you have to play with zero people (in the stands), which I don’t think is going to happen, yes, you play.”

N E WS

lifestyle

OSU’s pass/no pass option intended to help students J e nn if er Mau p in Staf f R epo rt er @JenniferMaupin8

In response to the global health crisis, Oklahoma State University decided to have a pass/no pass grading option for students who may be struggling.

Students have until May 20, one week after the deadline for final grades to be posted, to choose whether to keep their given letter grade or receive a “Pass” (P) or “No Pass” (NP) on their transcript.

Student Body President Kaitlyn Kirksey hopes the option will allow students to prioritize their wellbeing during the coronavirus pandemic.

“My hope is that this will give students the chance to prioritize their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing more than they would have been able to if we had stuck to the original grading system,” Kirksey said.

This option is an opt-in system; grades will default to a letter grade. Students must go online once grades are posted and select the P/NP option. If they do choose the P/NP, it will not affect the students’ GPAs. All undergraduate students receiving a “D” or above may elect to receive a “P” instead. This even applies to classes that previously required a “C” as a prerequisite for future courses. Graduate and professional students must still earn a “C” to receive a “P”.

Many universities have made the same decision, including the University of

Adam Luther/O’Colly

OSU announced the details of its pass/ no pass grading option on Monday.

Oklahoma. OU has many of the same guidelines and is also counting a “D” as a passing grade for undergraduate students this semester.

With a “D” now being considered a passing grade, the impact on courses where material builds over semesters may be harmful to students in the future.

In a statement put together

by Vice Provost Jeanette Mendez and her colleagues, Mendez said the policy is “not intended to make classes harder next semester.”

“For classes where content builds over multiple semesters, faculty have been asked to be mindful of how this semester might impact subsequent semesters, and colleges have already started working on ways to support faculty, staff and students so the transition into next semester is successful,” the statement said.

While this decision may lead to more work for students and staff in the following semesters, one student says it will be “extremely beneficial.”

That student, sociology major Leigh Welch, believes this decision is likely to help students who are

coping with increased levels of depression and anxiety during an unprecedented pandemic.

“Isolation is extremely tolling on mental health,” Welch said. “That’s not even counting that many students are returning to home environments that aren’t conducive to work.

This keeps away the additional anxiety of having to worry so much over their GPA.” On OSU’s website, a list of frequently asked questions about the policy can be found to help guide students concerned about how this will affect their future.

This decision could possibly affect a student’s competitiveness when applying for graduate and professional programs. The university anticipated this concern in it’s FAQ, but said it’s difficult to anticipate how other universities will handle the situation.

A student in this particular situation, senior electrical engineering major Jacob Robbins, said the disruption caused by COVID-19 “extends well beyond OSU.” “Most of the world is dealing with this,” Robbins said. “Billions of people are going to have this same stumbling block on their resume. Every industry is going to have a hiccup where the spring and summer of 2020 is concerned.”

The Office of Academic Affairs encourages students to begin consulting with advisers, faculty members and other program coordinators now for guidance on electing P/NP grades.

SUAB / Twitter

The Student Union Activities Board has brought its programs online to give Oklahoma State students an opportunity to stay active in the OSU community even from home.

SUAB brings community online E l l i e Me l e ro Ne ws E di to r @ e l e ano r_me l e ro

Just because the Student Union is closed doesn’t mean Oklahoma State students can’t participate in Student Union Activities Board events.

To make sure students can still participate in activities and feel connected to other members of the OSU community, SUAB has started hosting its programs online. From weekly trivia to cooking videos, SUAB is still working to bring its events to students no matter where they are.

Julian Thomason, SUAB president, said SUAB is utilizing all the tools it has at its disposal to allow students to participate in its activities remotely, including its social media accounts and online tools like Kahoot.

“The way that we’re exploring this process is we’re going week by week,” Thomason said. “We have a list of brainstormed ideas, and each of our executive board members have been absolutely wonderful in stepping up to the plate and taking on (an activity).

From there, we’re picking what we’re going to do for the following week.”

SUAB’s first online event

was a “Spongebob” themed trivia, held over Facebook live, Zoom and Kahoot.

Although there were some kinks to work out at first, such as how to deal with lag, many people said they enjoyed the trivia.

“You guys are amazing!”

Mariah Mayfield commented on SUAB’s Facebook live stream during trivia.

Since then, SUAB has hosted a “The Office” themed trivia and a “Quarantine Cuisine” cooking lesson. It’s hosting a Netflix tournament on its social media accounts. Thomason said SUAB plans to host at least one online program per week, including trivia once a week.

The shift from in person to online events has saved SUAB money, and the organization is passing that money onto students via the prizes for its events.

“There’s virtually almost no cost to us to host trivia events, so our prizes cost way more than they normally would,” Thomason said. “We’re giving away more quality things. We’re able to do a little bit more in terms of what we give students and what we provide for students just because of not having to pay the cost of (catering and conference

services). We don’t have to worry about a lot of the logistical things now.”

Among the prizes that have been offered are Nintendo Switches and Apple AirPods. SUAB mails the prizes to students.

One of the things SUAB has focused on is cultivating an online community to get as many people involved from home in events as possible. Thomason said this online community is something SUAB intends to keep even after things go back to normal.

“We’re really enjoying curating an online community,” Thomason said.

“I think that’s something that we want to focus on more. It’s not just a means of passing communication from us to them; it’s more of, we really want to try and see if we can create a little community on the different platforms. This situation has given us the opportunity to do that.”

Some programs SUAB hopes to bring online over the next few weeks include a pen pal initiative and an online drag show to replace its annual Dragonfly event.

Information about upcoming events can be found on SUAB’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

lifestyle

For your information: Vaccines Megan Hays L ife style Editor @ megther ep orter

With all this talk about viruses, one will eventually land on the topic of vaccines. There are a lot of questions regarding the creation of a vaccine to help with the current pandemic and your friendly science major is here to help. People have their opinions on vaccines, but here, I’m going to just focus on the science behind them.

What is a vaccine?

A vaccine is a solution made to activate the body’s immune response to create specific antibodies to respond to the target a specific virus. There are several ways that this is done to make sure the people who receive the vaccine don’t get sick.

The virus in the vaccine maybe killed or severely weakened, therefore making it incapable of actually infecting a person or only the protein shell of the virus is in the solution.

How do vaccines work?

As mentioned above, the vaccine doesn’t have the live virus in it, but it still initiates an immune response. To understand how that works, a quick lesson on how the human immune system works is needed. When the body finds something that doesn’t belong, it will start the first wave of defense that is a general response. It isn’t meant to be a long-term solution but just enough to keep the virus at bay for the second wave to respond. This is also why

you might feel a little sick after your vaccine shot. If the body has seen the invader before, there are cells that recognize the pathogen and start to replicate and go after the pathogen to neutralize or kill it.

Vaccines show the body these pathogens without causing any of the negative effects of having a virus at full strength enter the body. The body creates lymphocytes, in the form of B cells and two subtypes of T cells. Both of these types of cells have receptor sites that recognize specific targets.

The antibodies produced by the B cell when then be encoded for used if the same invader comes back.

Vaccines cause the body to create these cells so when the body is exposed to the live virus,

Tyler Drabek/O’Colly file photo

As the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the U.S. people are starting to wonder is a vaccine is possible in the near future.

the body already has a cellular memory of the virus protein coat so it can respond quicker and more efficiently to the pathogen.

How do you make a vaccine?

The virus has to be isolated and grown in the lab. This is where chicken eggs or lab-grown human cells come in handy. Once the virus is isolated, the virus is then killed or severely weakened, so the body will react to the protein shell of the virus without actually becoming infected. From there, some additives like aluminum salts (increase body’s response) and antibiotics (to prevent bacterial growth within the vaccine solution) along with preservatives are added.

Why does it take so long to make a working and accessible vaccine?

In the steps outlined above, it sounds like a vaccine should be easy and quick to make but it is more complicated than that. In some cases, the manufacturer of the vaccine might want to identify the protein structure of the virus to help understand how it could be treated. The process of creating the vaccine takes time. Especially since the next step could take even more time. The vaccine needs to get approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has very strict standards for the vaccines. Before human trials, there is the ingredient analysis, cellular trials and animal trails before it is even seen by a human patient. If all that goes well scientists need to figure out how to make the vaccine on a much

larger scale so that it can be distributed to hospitals and pharmacies, which again takes time.

While scientists are working on making a vaccine as fast as possible, the earliest time a vaccine will be ready is likely to be 18 months. Unlike the flu, our bodies don’t have the cellular memory of the COVID-19 virus so our bodies are starting from scratch in initiating the second wave of the immune response, which takes time and means more time for the virus to multiply causing more cell death.

For now, the best options are to follow the procedures we have all already heard. Wash your hands, stay inside as much as possible and practice social distancing.

FOR RELEASE APRIL 8, 2020

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Houses For Rent

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

ACROSS 1 Continent with 11 time zones 5 Gift for a creative kid 11 Slyly include in an email, for short 14 Textile machine 15 “Who __ thunk it?”

16 Significant time span 17 Early stage of most tornados 19 Smallish batteries 20 Knotted up 21 Actress Basinger 22 Former Clannad singer 23 Terrible twos, one hopes 24 Bikini Bottom fry cook 27 Pacific current 29 “Fan-cee!”

30 Curiosity org.

31 Practitioner of total patient care 35 Neon or Freon 36 Common nickname for a redhead 39 “Oh, puh-leeze!”

42 Congregation leader 43 Fail to include 47 Turkish inn 49 At full volume 51 Hashtag symbol 55 Dog-__: folded at the corner 56 Ward of “Sisters” 57 SADD concern 58 “The Grouchy Ladybug” writer Carle 59 “Conan” channel 60 Easy-peasy ... or a hint to the start of 17-, 24-, 36and 51-Across 64 Seine water 65 Puts into law 66 At once, in many poems 67 Sales __ 68 Some digital watches 69 Polliwog home DOWN 1 ET from Melmac 2 Watts Towers neighborhood, briefly

600+ Rental Units Available Full Listings @ Stillwaterpm. com Stillwater Property 633 N. Husband 405-743-2126

WEDNESDAY, APRI 8, 2020

Your Classified Ad or Business Square could be here! $10/Week Published online 3 times a week.

Email ads@ocolly.com or lori@ocolly.com Advertise your business specials, online or remote church activities, houses and apartments for rent, help wanted ads, or any other special your business is offering.

By Nancy Black Tribune Content Agency

Level 1

2

3

4

4/8/20

By Zachary David Levy

3 Greek islanders of old 4 “Who am I?” speaker, perhaps 5 Leatherworking tool 6 Is totally awesome 7 Dutch flower 8 MLB replay aid 9 College URL suffix 10 Bit 11 Pliable seat 12 Coloring name since 1903 13 Winter melons 18 Paradise 22 Skinny swimmer 23 Home near a barn 25 Cosa __ 26 Show up for 28 “Darn it all” 32 Surg. centers 33 Used car site 34 “Who am __ judge?”

37 Pretended to be 38 Icy end-of-theworld region 39 Trendy type often parodied on “Portlandia”

Daily Horoscope

c las s if ieds

Tuesday’s Puzzle Solved

4/8/20

Solution to Tuesday’s puzzle

©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

40 Slide organisms 41 Calls on the carpet 44 Rivera in Cooperstown 45 “Seems to me,” in dialect 46 Danson of “The Good Place” 48 Genetic “messenger” initials

4/8/20

50 Most steaks 52 Notions 53 Fashion brand identified by interlocking G’s 54 2012-’18 Mexican president 60 Push-up target, for short 61 __ bind: stuck 62 CIA forerunner 63 Close

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit, 1 to 9.

For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit sudoku.org.uk

© 2020 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved.

Today’s Birthday (04/08/20). Your career takes flight this year. Your team is your secret superpower. Educational challenges next summer inspire domestic renovation and beautification before your work takes a shift. Adapt to a new story next winter, before an investigation or exploration heats up. Your work is earning respect.

To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.

Aries (March 21-April 19) -- Today is an 8 -- Collaborate to manage a joint financial challenge. Study money and review your resources. Discover a structural problem and address it. Plan and strategize.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) -- Today is a 9 -- Consider consequences before acting. Don’t make assumptions about your partner’s point of view. Go ahead and ask them directly. Navigate changes together.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) -- Today is a 7 -- Routines could get tested. Reinforce structural supports. Slow to strengthen the basics. The possibility of technical error is high. Stay practical, especially with resources.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) -- Today is a 7 -- Take it easy. Slow the action to address foundational matters. An unexpected twist could interfere with romantic plans. Offer practical support and comfort.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) -- Today is a 7 -- Settle into your cozy nest. Make repairs and upgrades without breaking the bank. Strengthen foundational infrastructure. Plan carefully. Get into the design. Imagine perfection.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Today is an 8 -- Study the basics before you explore details and frills. Review the materials carefully. Present your case tactfully. Wait for developments before jumping to conclusions.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) -- Today is a 7 -- Focus on making money. Adapt to changing circumstances and potential shortfalls. Avoid unexpected expenses.

Old assumptions get challenged. Stay light on your feet.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) -- Today is an 8 -- You can’t be two places at the same time. Stay in communication. Maintain objectivity in a tense situation. Hold yourself to high standards.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) -- Today is a 6 -- You’re especially sensitive. Enjoy soothing, familiar comforts like tea and good music in peaceful surroundings.

Simplify plans and expectations. Allow some nothing time.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- Today is an 8 -- Resolve structural issues with a team project. Avoid provoking short tempers. Use gentle pressure rather than brute force. Maintain an open mind. Practice forgiveness.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) -- Today is a 7 -- Professional responsibilities require your attention. You may come up against a conflict with the status quo.

Strengthen infrastructure for changing circumstances. Provide stable leadership.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- Today is a 7 -- Your journey might take an unexpected turn. Find a comfortable spot to wait for better conditions. Double-check reservations and connections. Study the options.