Friday, January 5, 2024
OSU joins Common Application, expects increase in application rates Miles Jennings O’Colly Contributor
National Center for Education Statistics. Although OSU had an above-average admission rate for 2022, a large discrepancy between accepted applicants and enrolled OSU is making it first-time students persists. easier for high school stuOut of 13,503 admitted students to apply. dents, only 34.3%, or 4,643 The university is now accepting applications enrolled. Jeff Hartman, the through Common Applicadirector of undergraduate tion, which allows applying high school students to admissions clarifies said this discrepancy is due to submit a common portion the trend of high school applicable to all partnered students applying to more institutions along with a colleges. supplemental portion that “Over the last couple is unique to specific uniof years, we’ve seen the versities. OSU is accepting majority of students apply applications through the Common Application start- to more and more schools and give themselves more ing this fall. options of where they want OSU will be joining to go, and so our yield rate over 1,000 colleges that on average is anywhere already partner with the between about 35-40% of company. students,” Hartman said. For the fall 2022 Prospective students semester, OSU admitted first-time, first-year, degree- search for institutions with many factors in mind, seeking applicants at a rate of 70.6%. The national including classification, specific programs, sports, average admission rate for campus experience and 2022 was 60.7%, according to Research.com when personal finance. Rachel Eng, the asciting data collected by the sociate director of commu-
nications, said finances also play a role in a high school student’s decision to enroll. “Most institutions provide financial aid and scholarship based off of their admissions application, so it is not unusual nationally for a student to apply to multiple universities and wait for their financial aid package and scholarship awards to come through and compare those to what they’ve received,” Eng said. “Our goal is to provide competitive financial aid packages to ensure an OSU education is an affordable reality for as many students as possible.” Partnering with the Common Application will now streamline the process for students. However, it will come with the anticipation of increased applications. “We’ve already seen it for the fall ‘24 class. Our application numbers have increased,” Hartman said. “Our admit numbers have increased. What we don’t know yet is what that enrollment number is going to look like.” news.ed@ocolly.com
File Photo OSU will be accepting applications through Common Application starting with the fall 2024 admissions cycle.
Oklahoma’s mental health infrastructure needs an overhaul Alyessia Lopez O’Colly Contributor
impacting their daily lives and hindering normal childhood experiences. However, adolescents are also facing mental disorders. Children 12–17 years Mental health is a old were “more likely to critical aspect of overall have received any type of well-being, and the stark mental health treatment reality of the challenges they face is both alarming (including haven taken prescription medication and and heartbreaking. A significant number received counseling or therapy from a mental health of young minds grapple with overwhelming feelings professional),” according of fear, worry and unease, to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Oklahoma, unfortunately, is not immune to the broader national crisis in children’s mental health. The state faces its own set of challenges, and when it comes to mental health rankings in America, Oklahoma is often positioned toward the lower end of the spectrum. Oklahoma ranks 38th nationally in mental health for adults and 28th for children. See Overhaul on 6
Carson Buller
Manufacturing power
The effects of an organized workforce Carson Buller O’Colly Contributor
Many workers feel powerless within their professions. With the job market floundering, prices across the board skyrocketing and workloads are intensifying, America’s changing economy has presented a difficult challenge for the modern worker. This has left some workers feeling like they are without control. They aren’t. About a century ago, workers endured far harsher work environments, longer working hours and pitiful compensation from employers. Individual employees were incapable of creating better working conditions alone, so workers began to organize and protest against their employers. Their efforts of unionization, as TCTA president Shawna MottWright said, were wildly effective, and are responsible for a large portion of the workplace improvements that workers enjoy today. “Weekends exist because of unions,” Mott-Wright said. “Weekends were not a thing before. The five-day work week: that’s unions. So everybody needs to thank a union. Child labor doesn’t exist because of unions.” As a former senatorial candidate and the daughter of two union members, Mott-Wright is well-versed in the historical impact of unions, which are also directly responsible for increased racial and gender equity and improved safety regulations. But while progress has continued somewhat over the last few decades, many of the major landmarks in union history occurred more than half a century ago, and recently, the rights of workers have seemingly backpedaled. Alongside this deterioration, the price of living is rapidly soaring. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that from 2010-2022 alone, the average price of living increased by $24,858, an increase of 52%. This begs the question; what changed in America? The beginning of the decline of unions can be traced back to the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which significantly weakened unions by outlawing secondary boycotts and “featherbedding,” a safety statute that required employers to hire more employees than needed, or else limit production. Union erosion continued throughout the 1970s as employers began to utilize legal intimidation tactics against unions, such as antiunion consultants and threats of total shutdown, while also utilizing illegal but poorly enforced tactics, such as firing pro-union workers. In the 1980s, former president Ronald Reagan began a
staunch, nationwide crackdown on unions, firing striking air traffic controllers and subsequent hiring of exclusively non-union controllers in 1981. During the first term of the former union leader’s presidency, the number of annual union elections fell by 50%. Union affiliation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that unions have yet to recover from the Reagan administration. Despite a population increase of more than 100 million people from 1983 to 2022, overall union membership has experienced a gradual decline over the last 40 years. The national anti-union sentiments of the ‘70s and ‘80s linger within many older employers. Doug Hibbs, the former terminal manager at Groendyke Transport in Liberal, Kansas, said he is opposed to his workforce unionizing, using a ‘70s-era union-busting tactic to ensure their privatization. “I have no use for a union,” Hibbs said. “I’ve made the statement that if anybody ever wanted to put a union out here in my facility, every piece of equipment I own would be on sale, and we would shut down.” Hibbs said his distaste of unions does not come from a place of malice or lack of empathy for workers. Many of Hibbs’ employees, such as retired trucker Eldon McIntyre, are adamant in their support of Hibbs’s employment practices. McIntyre, a former union trucker at Complete Auto Transit in Detroit, said his experience working for Hibbs was like that of union work. “Working for Doug Hibbs, the benefits were about the same as Detroit,” McIntyre said. “The only difference was the safety aspect of it and the pay. Other than that, there was not a whole lot of difference between union and nonunion.” Hibbs’ anti-union stance is reflective of the politics of decades past, and those politics have hindered the power of unions greatly. But despite decades of dilution, unions remain highly impactful in the lives of their members, offering increased pay and a myriad of benefits for those willing to pay a small monthly price. Union ironworker Jake Gronquist is a current union beneficiary, and he said union membership is an overwhelmingly positive force in his life. “My union dues are $32 a month,” Gronquist said. “I just left this job in California two weeks ago, and I had been out there since the end of February. I was paid $160,000 in the time frame. That seems pretty good for about $400 out of my pocket a year. And we have all of our retirement security, pensions, health, dental, vision, insurance. We got all sorts of stuff in it.” See Power on 7