Dec. 23

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

OSU health develops research institute for humans and animals

Gary Lawson

Jared A’Latorre There are new innovations in human and animal health, thanks to OSU’s College of Veterinary and Medicine.

The launch is called the Institute for Translational and Emerging Research in Advanced Competitive Therapy, also known as INTERACT.

INTERACT will take the next steps in making new therapies. Dr. Carlos Risco, the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine said that the thought couldn’t have been done without prior success.

“The idea for INTERACT came from our long successful history in conducting clinical trials in diseases that affect both small and large animals to develop or discover new therapies and diagnostics,” Risco said.

OSU president Burns Hargis paid a visit to the launch of the research institute on Dec. 3 to find out what the institute

would do in treating cancer tumors in humans and animals.

Hargis said the institute would bring a lot of positives to the public.

“It’s a fantastic revolution to not be invasive in treating these tumors,” Hargis said.

“We’re moving toward One Health, where you’re dealing with animal, human and plant health. This is just another example that is completely transferable to human treatment.

We’re really at the center of this, and it’s very exciting.”

Dr. Kenneth Sewell, president of the OSU Research Foun-

dation said that the diversity and background of people have to be on board now in this day in age with science.

“INTERACT is a group of people who really understand that in this day and age, big science is team science,” Sewell said. “It has to bring people together from different disciplines and from different parts of the research community to solve the big problems, and that’s what I see this group doing.” news.ed@ocolly.com

OSU hosts Q&A about spring semester

By Matt Hubbard With the spring semester starting soon, some students are curious about the intricacies of the semester plans.

In a recent podcast, OStateTV’s Meghan Robinson met with Jeanette Mendez, Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Doug Hallenback, Vice President of Student Affairs, with questions about what 2021 might look like for OSU students.

Q: How would you assess the fall semester overall in general?

Doug Hallenbeck: I think our students would tell you they’re glad to be back. Being at home, March until August was long enough, and they’re ready to come back and kind of get into at least some semblance of what college really is about. We still have students that are fearful and scared, students that have been sick, you know, not just positive and asymptomatic, but we’ve had many that have been positive and had symptoms and some that have been fairly ill and have recovered. There’s all that, that goes in, but I think overwhelmingly it’s been positive, and people have appreciated all the efforts that

we’ve put in, but more importantly that they’ve all put in, their peers have put in and everybody to help keep us here.

Jeanette Mendez: You know, I think we’re really happy with where we’ve been for the fall. We did a lot of planning from March—until the semester started in August. I think we had hours and hours upon hours of really just trying to think through the best strategy possible. I think we provided a lot of flexibility and options for students. I think we communicated as well as we could across faculty and students, and again we were concerned with student’s safety and the spreading of the virus and I think we did really well there. I think overall when we look at the faculty and how students are doing, we’re pleased with where we are, but we know there are some concerns, we know not all students are happy and we are trying to address those, I think when we take a very holistic look, I think we’re pleased with where we were, especially when we look at other universities and some of their higher numbers and things like that.

See Spring semester on page 2

File photo The Oklahoma State University campus and surrounding areas are experiencing a temporary population dip due to students leaving amid COVID-19 break.

Page 2 Wednesday, December 23, 2020

News Q: You mentioned some of the students not being super happy with this semester and how things have gone. What is some of the feedback you’ve received, positive and negative from both students and faculty about this fall semester?

JM: The one thing I keep hearing from students in terms of positive is that they really did like the flexibility of the classes. So, they like this ability to be able to watch it live streamed or go faceto-face, but incidentally when you talk to faculty that’s what they like the least about this semester. There is nothing like being a faculty member and showing up to your class and having a quarter of your class show up that day, or not being really prepared for who would show up and how you can teach that day. So, we needed that flexibility. On the flip side I think faculty—the negative was, they just how to adjust more than they’re used to in a semester and adjust their learning, and so I think they just struggled with trying to find the optimum way—knowing any given day you didn’t really know who was there and what that makeup would be.

Q: Students have gone home for the remainder of the calendar year, but what can they expect when they return in January 2021 for the spring semester?

DH: I think the biggest thing that they can expect is, it’s going to be awfully similar to the way fall of 2020 was is that we’re still going to require masks, we’re still going to be social distancing the classroom experience in terms of our in-person classes, we’re still going to be in rooms where people are spread out that allow for social distancing. So, a lot of that is going to be very similar. Those that live in the residence hall and fraternity houses will do testing again, we’re going to ask everyone to get tested before they come back if they don’t live in one of those areas, just to kind of make sure as we start off we can limit the spread as much as possible, but our hope is that our numbers, not only here but in the state and in the country will be going down. Then we may be starting to opening up and having more in-person activities and events.

Q: And you mentioned the in-person classrooms here are socially distanced, is it going to be the same this semester, where students have the option of attending inperson or virtually or will there be a push to come more to in-person classes?

DH: The goal would be for more students to be in the classroom, in that setting. That’s how the faculty for the most part have designed classes that are supposed to be in person. That’s where the best learning happens.

JM: We still do not want students coming to class if they test positive for CoVid-19, if they are sick, if they have any symptoms, we want those students to stay home and the faculty have been told they do need to accommodate those students, but the accommodation we cannot guarantee if it’ll be a livestream like it was this semester. That will be up to the instructor, and I think some instructors will approach it very similarly to how we did it this semester, but we’re giving the instructor really more flexibility in how they structure the class and their learning outcomes and what’s best for their students and still encouraging students to come, engage

face-to-face or in an online class, keep up that same level of engagement, and again accommodate when students are sick. So, if you’re assuming that you can enroll in that face-to-face class and you can just livestream it from your apartment or from your dorm, you need to check with that faculty member first. So, I think we do need to put out that message and also the message that attendance will count and so that flexibility is going to feel a little less flexible.

Q: And that’s again, just to confirm 100% that is a class by class basis. So, students check with your professor, it’s not a departmental thing, it’s not an individual college thing, it’s each professor can choose whether it’s in-person or virtual or hybrid depending on what is best for them and their curriculum.

JM: Yes, and same with attendance. So, we had, once we put that announcement out to faculty, then the provost told a story that a faculty member asked “Do we have to take attendance?”

No, you don’t have to take attendance, but you can. We didn’t want you to in the fall, but you can, if attendance or engagement or participation is important in how you approach your class then you can do that.

Q: One of the big topics from you know the

or group counseling. We also a 24-hour evasive crisis line, Call SAM, where students can call in.

JM: There is misinformation going on around our mental health resources.

There is not months long wait to get in for mental health resources. In fact, on any given day there is always walk-in hours. So, you can be seen that day, in a walk-in setting. Now, if you want to make a permanent appointment. That might take a week or two, but that does not mean you wouldn’t be seen that same day that you walk in and if you were in a crisis, all bets are off, we are getting you in, not only the same day, but we will continue to work with you, there will not be not be any sort of wait time.

Q: One of the big concerns that I’ve heard from people around campus is canceling Spring Break, what that could do to some people here, both faculty, staff and students. So, why was that decision made to cancel Spring Break and just come back and start the semester a week later?

DH: Well again… It goes back to, we don’t know what COVID is going to look like in the spring and we know that short period of time, so one week, if people go all across the country and they go out and interact like we all do during spring break, you’re out and about, you like meeting with people or even if it’s small groups at home, then you all come back, everybody comes back in a relatively short period of time, it really could create a health concern in terms of COVID and really increase the spread, which may have meant that we had to cancel classes—in person classes and send everybody home again, which we Continued from page 1 don’t think is the right thing to do and so, it felt like it was best case scenario, to ensure as much in person instruction as we can that we needed to not have a spring until now was grading and pass/fail, what spring break and just push that out. So, is the approach that the school is taking when it that gives us from Thanksgiving, it gives comes to grading in the spring semester? us two months so people can go home, JM: We’re staying with the grading and pol- but they can also have a two-week peicy that we had in the fall, unless there is someriod, prior to coming back in the Spring, thing that would change how we had to respond where they can limit interactions with to the pandemic such as what we did last spring. others, they can get tested, if they’re sick So, this fall we had our traditional grades. We they can get quarantined. did encourage students if they needed to take JM: We were on a call yesterday an incomplete that—that is something that they with about 10 individuals, trying to figcould do. We had retroactive withdrawals, we ure out, is there some way we can create were willing to be more lenient if students need- a kind of mini-festival approach to the ed to drop a course or take an incomplete and spring semester. Maybe, take a couple so that’s what we would consider as well, but we of days, what would that look like? How will have the traditional grading scale that we can we do it safely, with the right numhad this fall. bers of people? Can we work through Q: What resources are available here on certain ways that maybe there’s a day or campus for both students and faculty who might two there that there wouldn’t be classes be having a tough time with this isolation and or someone was throwing in an idea of this distance learning and not having this sense turning off email for a day, what would of community here? that look like? So, I mean and of course DH: I think a lot of times people look to my fear is that if you turn off my email our faculty and staff and say “you’re supposed to one day, then that means the next day have everything all together and you don’t.” So, I I get double the amount of emails. So, appreciate you pointing that out. From a faculty really, what could we do that would be and staff standpoint, through our human resourc- positive, but without some unintended es we have an EAP psychologist on staff that consequences? So, I think we’re in the they can meet with as well, to just kind of help planning phase, but I think we will try them figure out and balance from an emotional to find ways that we can give faculty, and mental health standpoint. On the student students and staff some mental breaks side we have, through our mental health areas, throughout the spring semester to acthrough wellness as well as our counseling sercount for that length of time. vices and health services, we have a wide variety of resources, whether it’s in-person counseling news.ed@ocolly.com

Spring semester...

Q&A

sports

Timeout. How do players and coaches feel about a socially distanced bench?

Ben Hutchens Ja’Mee Asberry is happy she doesn’t feel like she is in timeout when she goes to the bench.

Because of COVID-19 protocols enforced by the Big 12 conference, the chairs that form team benches inside Gallagher-Iba Arena are spread out 6 feet from each other and extend in an L shape from the baseline to the scorer’s table.

Asberry, a junior point guard for the OSU Cowgirl basketball team, whose assigned chair for the season is along the baseline where the student section used to be, thinks she got lucky.

“I kind of like being by the student section,” Asberry said. “If I sat (closer to half court) under the (area where the seats of the 200 section is above you), I feel like I’m in timeout and the coaches are watching me the whole time.”

Although the new seat may offer Asberry a new view of the court and a chance to stretch her legs, she doesn’t think a socially distanced bench is good for her team.

“It kind of keeps us far apart and, who knows, some people might wander off cause they’re separated from everybody, and they’re not as locked in as last year when everybody was sitting together,” Asberry said.

A practical thing Asberry mentioned about the spread-out bench is that it is harder for the players on the court to hear the players on the bench loudly counting down as the shot clock dwindles away.

OSU freshman guard Lexy Keys also dislikes the current setup.

“You already have to create so much energy in the gym, and it’s hard whenever you’re that far away from your teammates already,” Keys said. “Your bench really helps you communicate on defense especially. They echo the coach the whole time so it’s hard to hear them when they’re almost in the stands.”

The socially distanced bench doesn’t find any more friends on the Cowgirl basketball coaching staff. Coach Jim Littell couldn’t see a single advantage the bench provides his team this year.

The physical act of substituting players into the game is not providing challenges for the coaching staff. As Keys explained, when a coach calls for a player sitting far away to enter the game, the player’s name will be repeated

File photo Team huddles up around the free throw line during Oklahoma State Women's Basketball's victory over Southern on December 2, 2020.

and echoed by everyone until the player gets the message.

The part about a socially distanced bench that is challenging Littell is what happens when a player checks out of the game.

“What makes it tough, especially for a young team, is when (the players) come off the floor you can’t have them sitting right beside you to coach them,” Littell said.

He said sometimes players exit the game to get a rest, while other times it’s because he sees something they are doing that needs to be fixed.

“It’s difficult correcting a player when they’re sitting 30 feet away from you,” Littell

GOOD MONEY

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A GREAT CAUSE

ACTIVE FAITH! (Part #2) “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” (Heb.11: NIV) These Ancients of the Bible were commended for their faith. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” (Gen.6:9 NIV) He believed God existed and God rewarded those who diligently sought him. His faith brought immediate action. (Heb.11:8) He did not put the building of the ark on a long “to do” list. It took 100 years to build. During that time he constantly spoke of the judgement that was coming. (2 Pet.2:5) This was the situation in Noah’s day.

How about our day? Do we believe God exists? To so many, God is something of the past; one you give an hour or so every Sunday morning, because of tradition, but he does not truly count

for much in life. So this moves us to turn to things that have only temporary pleasure, and build our life activities around them. Noah and others mentioned in Heb. 11, were looking for something lasting, something God had promised. They realized they were strangers and pilgrims; living here for a short time. They were living for something better. (Heb.11:13-16) It is so worthwhile to read and reread the New Testament and consider what was the hope of the early Christian leaders; they passed on to all the believers. It was not centered in this present life. They were “running a race;” living a life centered in the example of Jesus himself, and in those who walked with him during his earthly life. We can do the same; live for the eternal, present ourselves to Christ, and let him use us to bear lasting fruit.

said.

Littell has done really the only thing he can do to coach up his players on the sideline: talk to them as they are coming out of the game.

He will have a few seconds to pull them aside as they are walking to their chair to tell them what they did right, what they did wrong or if they are just subbing out to get a rest. He is making the most of all that the Big 12 allows.

“Nothing about this is normal right now, so we’ve got to adjust,” Littell said. sports.ed@ocolly.com

FOR RELEASE DECEMBER 23, 2020

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

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Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis ACROSS 1 Cartographer’s output 4 Monica who won three straight ’90s French Opens 9 HVAC letters 12 News agcy.

13 Soft palate part 14 Campus housing 15 Part of a biological hierarchy 18 Window over a door 19 Zen garden tools 20 Joshua __ National Park 21 Wound 24 Influential soul label based in Memphis 28 Muslim sect 31 “Much __ About Nothing” 32 Big Ben trio 33 Give a fine edge to 34 Regarding 36 Like the president’s office 37 “Happy Days” diner 38 Sanjay Gupta’s network 39 Feel contrition 41 Waved for transportation 44 How much to take 45 Jesters 48 Tuscan home of St. Catherine 50 Perfect example 53 Rate-rising-withamount levy that makes its way through four long answers starting at 15-Across 56 Debtor’s informal notes 57 Brownish gray 58 Co. concerned with net neutrality 59 AC/DC hit with the lyric “Watch me explode!”

60 Makes do 61 Howe’er

12/23/20

By John Guzzetta

DOWN 1 Mixed-breed dog 2 Here and there?

3 “Coco” studio 4 Images in a beach vacation album 5 Salad dressing initialism, to Rachael Ray 6 Oaf 7 Director Roth 8 Cul-de-__ 9 Request to turn up the volume?

10 “T” on a test 11 Foul callers 14 Liquid-Plumr rival 16 Layette buy 17 __-Roman wrestling 22 Off-campus housing 23 Bogart’s “Casablanca” hat 25 “Brockmire” actress Peet 26 Primatologist Fossey 27 Riverbed sediment 28 Ruler deposed in 1979

Tuesday’s Puzzle Solved

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29 Spanish greeting 30 Like a hastily donned T-shirt, perhaps 35 Little problem 36 Drug derived from poppies 38 Composer Franck 40 Some alimony recipients 42 Hungers 43 Starts a hole

12/23/20

46 “Capisce?”

47 Big shot on the tennis court 48 Narrow bit of land at a lagoon entrance, say 49 Par-3 club, usually 51 Prop for Frosty 52 Trade show 54 And so forth: Abbr.

55 Brazil map word

Daily Horoscope Nancy Black Tribune Content Agency Linda Black Horoscopes (TNS) -

Level 1

2

3

4

most challenging.

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Solution to Tuesday’s puzzle

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treats.

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12/23/20 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

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