‘Called to serve’ Friday, February 10, 2023
Kirksey shines a light on Black History Month
Black History Month Kennedy Thomason Assistant News & Lifestyle Editor Jason Kirksey wears many hats on campus. Serving as Oklahoma State University’s vice president for Institutional Diversity, the chief diversity officer and as an associate professor in the department of political science, Kirksey is a dedicated and experienced leader in diversity. He is an instrumental part of OSU’s continuing efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion. “From a senior-level executive position, you’ve got greater access to individuals who have final decisions, issues in policies and the opportunity to affect change more broadly,” Kirksey said. The role of the Division of Institutional Diversity is to provide support to minority and marginalized communities. The division also celebrates these communities through events during Black History Month. As a Black man, Black History Month is a time of celebration and reflection for Kirksey. Growing up in northeast Denver, a predominantly Black community, Kirksey remembers feeling called to create change from a young age. “My parents always told me that when I was 7 years old, I had announced that I was going to become a criminal defense attorney,”
Courtesy of The Ranchers Club The Rancher’s Club has no available reservations for Valentine’s Day because of its popular fine dining experience.
Love on the menu
Local eateries brace for holiday
Payton Little Staff Reporter
Courtesy of Jason Kirksey Kirksey brings about 25 years of experience teaching, researching, and active engagement with issues related to diversity and inclusion.
son, a service manager at Olive Garden, said Valentine’s Day is one of the restaurant’s busiest days of the year for the restaurant, only standing toe to toe with one other holiday. “It is probably the second busiest day of the year right behind Mother’s Day,” he said. “We spend a lot of the month of January prepping for that, making sure that we have the staff necessary to meet the needs of our community and making sure our staff knows what to expect.” The holiday brings about a more serious tone, as couples aim to impress one another. Meaning, Stillwater’s sitdown eating establishments are about to see late-night-Whataburger levels of production.
Hearts will be glowing and stomachs will be full with Valentine’s Day rounding the bend. There is no textbook definition for best date destinations, but going to a restaurant would have to be high up on the list if there was. With a perfect environment for dressing up, eating prepared food and having enough room to have private conversations, restaurants check off many of the boxes needed when planning a Valentine’s Day date. Bailey ThompSee Menu on 4A
‘Looking through a soda straw’
See Kirksey on 4A
OSU professor explains Chinese spy balloon Luisa Clausen News & Lifestyle Editor
Courtesy of The New York Times This picture the U.S. Navy shows sailors recovering a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
military directed and had flown over more than 40 countries across five continents. The department said it was “clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment A seemingly old-fashioned and onboard weather balloons.” ponderous way of obtaining informaAmerican officials said they do tion has ignited a diplomatic crisis not know exactly what kinds of combetween the U.S. and China. munications the satellite was trying to The U.S. military shot down a collect. Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina Jacob, who has been studying coast Saturday, after the balloon spent aerospace since 1990, said high-altifive days traveling from Idaho to the tude balloons can get the size of a footCarolinas. ball field when they are up in the air. Jamey Jacob, the director of the “Balloons themselves are difficult Unmanned Systems Research Institute to control, they drift with the wind,” and the director of Oklahoma Airspace Jacob said. The altitude, however, can Institute for Research and Education be controlled to try to catch different at OSU, said high-altitude balloons air currents. The thing about balloons are the oldest form of aerial platform. is that they don’t give a big field of They have been used over the past view. It’s kind of looking through a century to provide aerial observations soda straw, it can get good pictures, of the atmosphere. but of small areas.” “We usually use it for things such The balloons have some adas weather, climatological observations vantages over intelligence-gathering and pollution measurements,” Jacob because they are not as predictable to said. “You can even carry instrumenmilitaries and intelligence agencies as tation inside the balloon to do things the fixed orbits of satellites. The reasuch as stellar astronomy because you son for that is because they fly closer get above the lower atmosphere.” to earth and drift with wind patterns. The State Department said They can also hover over areas, while Thursday the Chinese spy balloon satellites are generally in constant was capable of collecting communica- motion tions signals and was part of a fleet of “The pros of a balloon is the low surveillance balloons that the Chinese expense and proximity to the target,
while the downside is controllability and visibility. It is a trade off,” Jacob said. Long before the Chinese balloon was floating over the U.S., Taiwan glimpsed Beijing’s ambition to turn balloons into a powerful tool for China’s military power. Chinese military scientists have been studying new materials and techniques to make balloons more durable, more steerable and harder to detect and track, according to The New York Times. U.S. Joe Biden’s administration received criticism from a portion of civilians because they did not order the balloon to be shot down immediately. Jacob said they couldn’t have shot the balloon down over open air and had it fall down with unintended consequences. “I think the right action is if you’re going to shoot it down at all, make sure you do it in an area it’s not going to cause any harm,” Jacob said. Jacob added he thinks it remains to be seen wether shooting it down was the right action or not. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said last Friday that the balloon was a civilian machine from China, mainly used for weather research, and that it had regrettably drifted off course. news.ed@ocolly.com