5 April 2021

April 5, Issue 23 - volume 106

Shipping on Suez reSumeS, p. 4 roy Williams to rEtirE, p.2

Education funding changE scorns sudEnts, p.5 lil nas X brEaks thE intErnEt , p. 6

cover by Emma Palmer

A student newspaper of the University of Tulsa

The Collegian: 2

Sports

5 April 2021

North Carolina men’s basketball coach to retire

After a legendary coaching career, the Tarheels’ and former Kansas Jayhawks’ coach has announced his retirement. Sports writer Joseph Breedlove reports on the end of an era.

A sad day has come to college basketball fans. Roy Williams, coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, has decided to retire. Announcing such on April Fool’s Day, people remained hesitant to see if he was trying to be funny, but sadly there was nothing to laugh about. Roy Williams is hanging up the Tar Heel blue coat and tie.

When people think of North Carolina basketball today, they do not always think of Michael Jordan, or how good of a program

they are, they think Roy Williams. Roy Williams has been coaching for 33 years, starting at Kansas, and then his most known role in coaching North Carolina. Williams is top 3 with most wins in college history. His final record is 903-264. This record though puts him as the highest winning percentage for any DI coach with over 900 wins.

Roy Williams has been a fantastic coach and has taken North Carolina and Kansas to great heights, including three national

courtesy Carolina Basketball Twitter championships, five Final Fours, nine ACC regular-season titles and three ACC Tournament victories, with another four Final Fours under his belt from his time with the Jayhawks. Williams has been awarded many coaches awards from the school and in 2007 was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

This is certainly an interesting time to retire for Roy Williams, especially after losing in the first round to Wisconsin’s Badgers.

Roy Williams is not known for losing, as the stats show. But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.

Throughout Roy Williams Career, he has coached some of the best players to ever grace the court. Roy Williams helped 32 players become first-round picks in the NBA, with 52 players total in the league over that time. Some of his most notable players are Nick Collison, Paul Pierce, Kirk Hinrich, Harrison Barnes, Danny Green, Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Coby White and Cole Anthony.

Roy Williams himself also got a lot of attention over the years, including Big Eight Coach of the Year (1990, 1992, 1995, 1996), Naismith College Coach of the Year (1997), Big 12 Coach of the Year (1997, 2002, 2003), ACC Coach of the Year (2006, 2011) and USA Today National Coach of the Year (2019). He is also the first coach to make it to 900 wins and is the first coach ever to have more than 400 wins with two different teams.

Roy Williams is leaving a great legacy, and he will always be remembered. It is a sad time to hear the heart breaking news, but his family, his players and the Tar Heel Nation/Jayhawk nation support him and thank him for everything he has done for the two programs. It still is a bit concerning that he waited until April Fools Day to retire, but it seems legit. All hail the legendary Roy Williams!

Major League Baseball Gonzaga versus Baylor: has finally come back Championship preview After a long and cold winter, America’s pastime has come back. Sports writer Tommy Reid discusses the first series that begin the year.

On Thursday of this past week, the 2021 MLB season began. After a long winter, baseball is now back.

While the original plan was for all 30 teams to play on opening day, this did not happen due to several reasons. The opening game in the series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox was postponed due to rain and was made up on Friday, April 2. Additionally, the entire threegame series between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals was postponed due to four players on the Nationals testing positive for COVID-19.

As it is very early in the season, the outcome of the first series of games will not determine how a team will do over the entire season, but it is often helpful to see how teams are performing right at the start of the season. After the first four days of the new MLB season, there were only three teams who were undefeated. The Baltimore Orioles, the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies were the three teams to claim this accomplishment. There were also five teams that had yet to win a game.

These teams were the Boston Red Sox, the Oakland Athletics, the New York Mets, the Washington Nationals and the Atlanta Braves. All the other teams had won either one two or three games.

For those who are wanting to watch their favorite team play throughout the season, there are several ways to do this as there are many opportunities to watch MLB games.

Every team has a local regional sports network.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City

courtesy MLB Twitter Royals, the Los Angeles Angels, the Miami Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, the St. Louis Cardinals, the San Diego Padres, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers all have their games televised on the regional Bally’s sports networks for their respective teams.

Additionally, the Chicago White Sox, the Oakland Athletics, the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants all have their games televised on the NBC Regional Network for their respective team. The Colorado Rockies, the Houston Astros, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Seattle Mariners all have their games televised on the regional AT&T SportsNet network for their respective team.

The most popular teams can be found in a couple different places. The Chicago Cubs have their games televised on the Marquee Sports Network. The Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals have their games televised on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. The Boston Red Sox have their games televised on the New England Sports Network. The Los Angeles Dodgers have their games televised on Spectrum Sports. The New York Yankees have their games televised on YES Network. The Toronto Blue Jays have their games televised on Sportsnet.

In addition to these regional sports networks, there are many games that will be nationally televised on Fox, TBS, ESPN, MLB Network, and Fox Sports 1 throughout the season. MLB’s streaming service, MLB.tv, allows the viewer to watch all out of market games throughout the entire season.

With the madness coming to its close, basketball analyst Tommy Reid looks at the final game.

March Madness. The time of the year when anything can happen, and any team can surpass expectations. As the month of April is now here, the 2021 NCAA men’s basketball tournament is winding down and nearing completion. What started as sixtyeight teams has now been narrowed to only two remaining teams. Monday and Tuesday of last week were the Elite Eight and Saturday of last week was the Final Four.

This year, in the Elite Eight the number 2 seed Houston Cougars beat the number 12 seed Oregon State Beavers by a score of 6761, the number one seed Baylor Bears beat the number 3 seed Arkansas Razorbacks by a score of 81-72, number one seed Gonzaga Bulldogs beat the number 6 seed University of Southern California Trojans by a score of 85-66 and the number eleven seed University of Southern California Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins beat the Michigan Wolverines by a score of 51-59.

The Final Four consisted of two number one seeds, one number two seed and one number eleven seed. In the first game of the Final Four, the number one seed Baylor Bears beat the number two seed Houston Cougars by a score of 78-59. In the second game of the Final Four, the number one seed Gonzaga Bulldogs beat the number eleven seed UCLA Bruins by a score of 93-90.

Now that the Final Four matchups have been played, there is now only one game left in the 2020-2021 NCAA basketball season.

Two number one seeds will be playing each

other in the final game. Baylor, from the Big 12, who had a regular season record of 211, will be playing Gonzaga, the West Coast Conference champions who had a regular season record of 24-0. While Baylor and Gonzaga were scheduled to play each other earlier in the season, due to that game being canceled the championship game on Monday night will be the first time that these two teams have played each other this season.

Getting to the championship game was a bit of an opposite for these two teams.

Gonzaga had a perfect regular season and won their conference championship. Baylor did not have a perfect regular season and did not make it to the final round of their conference championships. Baylor has an easy win over Houston to make it into the NCAA championship game. Gonzaga had to go into overtime and beat UCLA on a last second nearly half-court shot to make it into the NCAA championship game. However, despite these two different paths to make it to the final game of the season, these two teams will be playing each other for the top position in all of NCAA men’s basketball.

Two teams will play in the game, but only one can win. Find out who takes home the championship on Monday night when a champion will be crowned. The final game of the 2020-2021 NCAA men’s basketball season will begin at 7:20 pm CT on Monday, April 5, 2021 and will be televised on CBS.

courtesy NCAA March Madness Twitter

Sports

5 April 2021

The Collegian: 3

Big 10 disappoints in tournament, Pac-12 fills the void

Seemingly against all odds, Big 10 teams underperformed as those from the Pac-12 cleaned house.

College sports writer Joseph Breedlove looks back on a surprising tournament.

As March Madness approaches its end, something stands out in the tournament. The Pac-12 has dominated in the tournament, and the Big 10 has stunk it up.

In the first round from the Big 10, Purdue and Ohio State, both lost in upsets. The first came in 15 seed Oral Roberts beating number 2 seed Ohio State, and the next occurred with number 13 seed defeating number 4 seed Purdue. For Ohio St, it seems as though they did not know what they were getting themselves into. For Purdue, the advantage they had from their bigs was unbelievable, but still could not get it done. No teams can underestimate anyone: it is called Madness for a reason.

In the second round, number 2 seed Iowa lost to number 7 seed Oregon. This was a travesty as Luka Garza, one of the best bigs in college basketball, could not get any help from his teammates. It seemed as if

they came out flat and expected to win. The Pac-12 Oregon Ducks begged to differ and came out with some fire to play them and never thought they were going to lose that game. In a bigger upset, r 1 seed Illinois lost to number 8 seed Loyala Chicago. Not only lost, actually, but got pummeled: 71-58.

With Illinois as one of the overall favorites, coming up short in the second round made for a big surprise. This curse on the Big 10 has made for something ridiculous.

For Pac-12 fans, this tournament is probably a fantastic year. Number 12 seed Oregon State came out guns blazing to beat number 5 seed Tennessee, taking the lead and never looking back. Then in the second round, they ended up beating number 4 seed Oklahoma State, with arguably the top college basketball player this year. Heading to the sweet 16, they then beat number 8 seed Loyala Chicago. The Beavers were on a roll

and a fun team to watch. However, their time had come when they played Houston and lost, despite coming back towards the end.

USC big win over Kansas. Kansas could not hang with USC. The Trojans ended up winning 85-51. The last Pac-12 team to remain was the number 11 seed UCLA Bruins. In their sweet sixteen game, they had to play number 2 seed Alabama and beat them 88-78. After that, they faced number 1 seed Michigan in the elite 8, had to get to work on them to win 49-51. Johnny Juzang and Bruins are a force to be reckoned with. There must be something different in the Pac-12 water because they have been putting on a show, especially now that the Bruins have madeit to the Final Four.

courtesy Oregon State Hoops Twitter

Rough week for all leaves little movement in NBA top 5

Releasing his penultimate power rankings for the season, basketball analyst Zach Short rates the league’s best and begins painting a picture of the postseason.

5. Los Angeles Clippers No team faced elimination from the power rankings quite like the Clippers did this week. While the fact remains that no top option performed quite at the level hoped, Los Angeles underperformed against two teams they desperately needed to beat. First, their loss against the Magic should embarrass them. Flukes happen and big teams lose to weak opponents here and then (the absence of Paul George did nothing to help), but Orlando has an abysmal record and poses little threat. Any five players on the Clippers’ roster should wipe the floor with the Magic on any given night. At least, if they want to make themselves known as a potential Finals contender. For their second loss, the Nuggets have encroached upon the top spots in the West enough that the Clippers should know they cannot afford to lose to them. The Bucks may have started making a strong claim to displace them in the power rankings, which the Clippers likely care very little about, but the Nuggets could move them down in a postseason seed, and the Clippers definitely have a much greater interest in getting an easier first round matchup.

Another bad week could drop the Clippers three spots to sixth — pitting them against whoever takes their current spot at third.

4. Brooklyn Nets With great confidence, I can say that the Nets will not win the NBA championship this year. If for no other reason, the team chemistry in Brooklyn has to lie among the worst in the league. With a whole slew of characters familiar with star roles now all vying for their share of

points each game and the inability of the team to get healthy at the same time, they will find themselves wholly outmatched against teams of players who have worked together all year, many of them in years prior. On top of all this tumult for the Nets, the recently surfaced messages from Kevin Durant do not boost the team’s image in the slightest, and the $50,000 fine slapped on him from the NBA makes things no lighter. In all, these guys are much too tempestuous to perform consistently at a high enough level to beat the well-oiled machines found in other organizations. However the East looks entering the postseason, the Nets could fall in any round. No team at tenth or higher seems wholly incapable of putting them in their place. No championship and no Finals appearance will come to Brooklyn this year.

3. Phoenix Suns The Suns may very well be the only team to have had a good week with their most recent games. Their last loss came Mar. 24 in a one-point game against the Magic, and they posted just three losses in the entire month of March, their biggest coming at only 11 points against the Pacers. They have proven that they can beat tough teams, and more importantly they have proven that they can win consistently and only rarely drop games to teams playing at a lower level than them.

The world has yet to see Devin Bookers in a high stakes postseason environment, but it did see his potential for clutch play when he led the Suns to an 8-0 bubble performance only to miss the Playoffs anyway. With the addition of the veteran Chris Paul, a Finals appearance seems

increasingly possible. A healthy Lakers poses the most formidable threat for any team in the West hoping to make an appearance for the first time in years (viz. the Suns, Jazz, and Clippers), but the Suns seem to have as good a chance as anyone. And no one deserves a ring more than Chris Paul.

2. Philadelphia 76ers While the Suns grow ever closer to taking second in the power rankings, the 76ers get perpetually closer to usurping the top rank overall. In other words, let this be a warning to the Jazz. This may seem strange, given that the 76ers have begun to appear as though they will lose the top seed in the East to the Nets, but tiny margins in record cannot account for the obvious fact that the 76ers play much better basketball than do the Nets. Even despite their recent losses to the Clippers and the Nuggets, two Western Conference teams that would have made for boastable wins, the real statistic to watch lies in the point differential (10 or less both games) that occurred without their MVP candidate Joel Embiid. If and when the big man returns, the 76ers will start upon a warpath that will likely take them to the Finals, and certainly will not come to a halt for the Nets if anyone.

1. Utah Jazz Thin ice. The Jazz have played well in their last games, but this has come in the form of less-than-impressive margins against teams they should crush with ease. Given that they did not lose in the last week and that winning is, after all, the most important thing a team does, they did retain their spot. However, the

top three spots in the power rankings all seem prepared to make strong claims for Finals appearances if not a trophy, and the Lakers still provide an idle threat contingent on the strong returns of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Next week will have the last appraisal of the NBA’s top teams here, and the Jazz could easily lose the spot they have held for so long.

Even then though, Utah has played excellently this season, and only a few teams in any scenario truly seem capable of ever stopping this team in a series. At the least, the Jazz are a lock for the Western Conference Finals.

Hot Seat: Denver Nuggets While last week’s selection in the Milwaukee Bucks still possesses the opportunity to enter the power rankings and even make a postseason run, one cannot ignore the recent success of the Nuggets. In a time where top teams have struggled to string wins together, someone has to have cleaned up with some wins, and that team plays in the mile-high city. Denver’s most recent games include wins over both the Clippers and the 76ers, as well as a rout of the aspiring Hawks team. Late season reveals which teams have the capacity to compete genuinely in a postseason setting, and the Nuggets have caught stride just in time. Their positioning has not looked great for seeding in the West, but with just over a month left in the regular season, they may quite possibly jump to an impressive spot and dash the hopes of some team that fizzled out too early. Maybe the Clippers.

April 5 - April 11 Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday 6

5

Thursday

Friday 8

7

Saturday 9

10 Rowing Kansas St. & Central OK All Day Track & Field

none

M Soccer @ SMU 3:30 p.m.

none

M Tennis Temple 12:30 p.m.

W Tennis Temple 3:30 p.m.

WSU Home Inv.

All Day

none

Track & Field Joe Walker Inv. All Day Softball @ USF 11 a.m.

Softball @ USF 11 p.m.

Sunday 11 W Golf @ OSU All Day Softball @ USF 10 a.m.

W Soccer SMU 1 p.m.

M Tennis @ SMU 2 p.m.

News

The Collegian: 4

5 April 2021

Biden’s presidential cabinet confirmations The Biden administration has confirmed a historically diverse Cabinet and awaits the confirmation of the final two positions.

Piper Prolago News Editor Following his inauguration on Jan. 20, President Joe Biden started to assemble the most diverse Cabinet in United States history. The senate has already confirmed Biden’s nominations for the core 15 positions; of the additional eight Cabinet-level positions, the senate has confirmed six.

Of the 21 confirmed positions, Biden’s Cabinet is 45 percent female and is 55 percent non-white, making it the most diverse Cabinet in the country’s history. Previous administrations were significantly more white male-dominated with 18 percent female and 18 percent non-white individuals comprising Trump’s Cabinet; 36 percent female and 45 percent non-white individuals

made up in Obama’s Cabinet. Additionally, Biden’s Cabinet has had more government experience than the previous two administrations’ with 95 percent having government experience while 68 percent and 86 percent of Trump’s and Obama’s Cabinets, respectively, had any.

Biden’s first confirmation was placed Avril Haines as the first female Director of National Intelligence and has made her the highest ranking woman in the U.S. intelligence community. Haines was the deputy national security advisor and deputy CIA director under Obama. During her tenure in the Obama administration she was involved in several controversial decisions to further the drone strike program. Biden’s second confirmation made Lloyd Austin the first Black Secretary of Defense. Previously, Austin was the first Black general to command an Army division in combat.

Several other Cabinet positions have been confirmed as the first woman or the first person of color to fill their positions.

Vice President Kamala Harris has made his-

tory as the first female, the first Black and the first South Asian American Vice President. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo Nation, is the first Native American person to be a Cabinet secretary. Haaland was confirmed after serving as one of the first two Native American congresswomen in 2018 in New Mexico. Pete Buttigeg was confirmed as the Secretary of Transportation, making him the first openly gay Cabinet secretary. Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is the first Latinx person and immigrant to hold this position. Notably, Mayorkas oversaw the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program under the Obama administration, during which he served as the deputy secretary of Homeland Security.

Because the Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris acting as the tiebreaker between the evenly split chamber, Biden’s Cabinet positions have been confirmed relatively more quickly than

graphic by Emma Palmer

Out of 23 Cabinet and Cabinet-level positions, the Biden administration has had 21 confirmed.

those of the previous two administrations.

Biden has filled the core 15 positions within the first two months of his presidency, while both Trump and Obama waited nearly 100 days to see the Cabinet confirmed. Despite this, many positions have raised controversies and Republican senators pushed back against several nominations.

The most recently confirmed position placed former Boston mayor Marty Walsh as Secretary of Labor. A former top union leader, Walsh will be the first union member to fill this position in half a century. The most narrow confirmations were of Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. A strong advocate for climate action and outspoken opponent of fossil fuels, Haaland received only 51 votes to confirmation with 40 against her. Xavier Becerra also received 51 votes to confirm his position, but had 49 votes against him. This is in part due to Becerra’s lack of experience in health policy.

Oklahoma senators James Lankford and Jim Inhofe were among the most dissenting senators during the confirmation hearings.

Lankford voted against 11 nominations and Inhofe against 8 out of 21 positions that have been confirmed. The most dissenting senators were Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Texas’s Ted Cruz, who were against 19 and 18 nominations, respectively.

Still yet to be filled are two positions at the Cabinet-level: Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Eric Lander was nominated to the former, but has yet to be confirmed; this position, which is essentially the presidential science advisor, was elevated to the Cabinet-level for the first time by President Biden. Lander led the Human Genome Project and founded a nonprofit biomedical research institute at MIT and Harvard, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The White House withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden for the Director of the Office of Management and Budget after it became clear she would not have enough votes to be confirmed; the position now awaits an alternative nomination.

Blocked Suez Canal disrupts international shipping The cargo ship, Ever Given, was wedged in the Suez Canal for six days, costing shipping companies billions.

Tommy Reid Student Writer This past week, there was a major disruption to international shipping. The cargo ship the Ever Given became stuck in the Suez Canal, resulting in a canal blockage.

This strange incident halted all shipping and trade passing through the Suez Canal.

which means that the tide was higher than normal. As a result, on Monday, March 29, the ship was set free. It took 14 tugboats to free the ship. When the ship had finally been set free, about 30,0000 cubic meters of sand were removed, enough to fill about 12 Olympic swimming pools.

How the ship became stuck in the canal remains a mystery as of writing. The initial reports from the owners of the ship said that high winds due to a sandstorm caused the ship to be stuck in the canal; however, the chairman of Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority said that the weather conditions were not the main reason for why the ship became stuck.

“When the ship had finally been set free, about 30,000 cubic meters of sand were removed ...”

noted that “It will take some time for the effects of this incident to be fully absorbed.”

He continued, “Aside from the delays directly caused by the closure, there is an inevitable bunching of vessels that occurs as they call their next ports.” When the canal reopened, there were at least 360 ships that were waiting at the canal’s northern and southern entrances. There were at least .

tucollegian@tucollegian.com

editor-in-chief

On Tuesday, March 23, the Ever Given was traveling through the Suez Canal when it became stuck in its attempt to cross through the man-made canal. It became wedged in a narrow portion of the canal and was unable to continue its journey as it was stuck in the sand.

During the six days that followed, crews worked tirelessly to free the ship. While conventional earth moving equipment worked on the shore, tugboats and dredgers worked in the water. The night before the ship was set free, there was a spring tide in the canal

@TUCollegian @TUCOLLEGIAN

tucollegian@tucollegian.org

editor in chief

As a result of this six-day closure of the canal, which carries over 10 percent of world trade, over 400 ships had their journeys delayed. This delay is estimated to be costing shipping companies $10 billion per day — over $40 million per hour. Since there were over 400 ships that were delayed, the effects of the past week will be felt for the upcoming weeks, months and perhaps years.

Speaking about the upcoming effects, Ahmed Bashir, head of Global Execution Centers for the shipping company Maersk,

another 300 ships that were en route to the canal.

While it is important that the Ever Given is now free, it will be a period of time before the canal is back to the normal volume of ships sailing through it and the shipping industry will stabilize after what happened when the Ever Given stalled.

Justin Guglielmetti Emily Every managing editor

managing Raven editor Fawcett

Sara Serrano news editor

Ethan Veenker news editor

Pipersports Prolago editor

Brennen Gray

sports editor

variety editor Zach Short

Emma Palmer

variety editor

commentary editor

Myranda Emily New Every commentary editor satire editor

Justin Klopfer Madison Connell satire&editor photo graphics editor

Conner Maggio Anna Johns

business & advertising

photo & graphics editor manager

Emma BrianPalmer Kwiecinski

media & web businesssocial & advertising manager manager

Mary Emma Bergwell Palmer Sara Serrano

distribution social media & webmanagers manager

Lee Karalia Ha Jacob Huynh Alexander

Jesica Santino and copyKatelyn editor Baker

HanacopySaad editor

Bryant Loney

The Collegian is the student newspaper of the University of Tulsa. It is distributed Mondays during the fall and spring semesters, except during holidays and final exam weeks. The University of Tulsa does not discriminate on the basis of personal status or group characteristics including but not limited to the classes protected under federal and state law. Inquiries regarding implementation of this policy may be addressed to the Office of Human Resources, 800 South Tucker Drive, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104-9700, (918)631-2616. Requests for accomodation of disabilities may be addressed to the university’s 504 Coordinator, Dr. Tawny Rigsby, (918)631-3814. To ensure availability of an interpeter, five to seven days notice is needed; 48 hours is recommended for all other accomodations.

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photo via Wikimedia Commons The Suez Canal is an artificial canal dividing Africa and Asia, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.

Correction: Last week, The Collegian published an article titled “A timeline of Biden and the oil industry” with the deck “COVID-19, inclement weather and Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline have dropped oil prices significantly.” This should have read “COVID-19, inclement weather and Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline have affected oil prices significantly.” We apologize for the inconvenience.

Commentary

5 April 2021

The Collegian: 5

The Legislative Digest is your weekly look at the happenings of Oklahoma’s state legislature, upcoming bills and the terms to know.

Justin Klopfer Commentary Editor

HB 2546: This bill concerns the rights of victims of sexual assault. It establishes a right to “consult… with a sexual assault victims’ advocate.” The bill also guarantees that forensic evidence taken from a sexual assault victim cannot be used to prosecute misdemeanor crimes or as a evidence of misdemeanor crimes as a basis for a search.

Crucially, the bill also ensures sexual assault victims are informed of these rights throughout the legal process. Both cops and doctors must inform the victims of their rights in their respective processes. The rights also are guaranteed to apply “regardless of whether the victim agrees to participate in the criminal justice system.”

This bill establishes great protections for an incredibly vulnerable group of people. These are essential rights that ensure justice is achieved while preserving the autonomy of victims.

Sexual assault is still an incredibly under-confronted issue in our society, and this bill is a good first step towards just treatment for victims.

In a rare glimmer of hope for the legislature, the bill passed through the House with a unanimous vote. I see no reason to believe it will encounter any real resistance in the Senate, and should hopefully be on the Governor’s desk by the end of the month.

SB 627: Until March 31, this bill was an utterly benign proposal to reconsider Oklahoma’s border along the Red River. However, after a recent amendment, the bill’s text is completely eliminated and replaced by a ban on “gender or sexual diversity training” in public bodies. The swap occured after the bill had already passed through the House, though it will have to be re-approved by the House if the Senate passes it.

If the language of the bill sounds familiar, it’s because the law was already shot down in the form of HB1888 earlier in the year. Thankfully, this new bill doesn’t include the stipulation forcing school counselors to inform parents of LBGTQ+ students of their children’s identities. Still, the bill is a disgusting display of hate and has no place.

When HB1888 was being proposed a few weeks ago, I wrote that the bill “seems to have been stalled.” This is still true, and the Republicans in the legislature know it. The bill was essentially dead, facing too much opposition in the House. Of course, failure in the democratic process isn’t enough to stop this kind of hate.

It’s yet another example of the shady practices of Republicans in the legislature, which is more closed to public input and oversight than most other state legislatures in the country. If bills being voted on and passed were truly the will of the people — i.e. democratic — these practices would be unnecessary.

Recent education bill and court decision privatize education urban district like Oklahoma City Public Schools estimates at least $8 million in cuts.

Enrollment had particularly declined due to the ongoing pandemic, which saw an immense flight of students from public schools to online charters.

In contrast to many of the bills proposed in the legislature, HB 2078 made its way through the legislative process at breakneck

declared charter schools are deserving of equal funding to public schools. The legality of the ruling has already been challenged

by Oklahoma City Public Schools, citing Constitutional concerns. If it stands, the ruling would open up various local funds to the ready hands of charter schools.

All of this may sound benign without the context of how charter schools differ

“The bill is clearly yet another victory for charter schools at the expense of public schools.”

A newly passed plan redirects funds away from public education into the increasingly suspect industry of charter schools.

Justin Klopfer Commentary Editor On March 31, Governor Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 2078, which fundamentally altered the way education funding is allotted by the state. Key to the bill is shifting the methodology for counting students currently enrolled in schools. Before the bill, students from the two years preceding the current year were counted for total enrolment. Now, only the previous year’s students will be counted.

This funding system change boils down to a predictable result: less funding for public school districts. Schools that were already losing students — generally ones in large urban areas or rural districts — will experience a sharp decline in funding. An

speed. It passed through the Senate and was on the Governor’s desk on the same day.

This is not to say the bill was unanimously approved; eight out of nine Democrats and 11 of 38 Republicans voted against the bill, creating a somewhat slim margin of passing at 27-19. It’s yet another measure that sped through the process with little to no public input. Almost all of the scant input that was offered from Oklhoma public educators was against the changes. This doesn’t matter, of course. They had the votes so they passed it as quickly as possible.

The bill is clearly yet another victory for charter schools at the expense of public schools. Charter schools have seen a massive spike in enrollment during the pandemic, and this bill will give more weight to this recent spike when calculating funding. Epic Charter Schools specifically will be the single largest beneficiary in terms of total funding gained from the new changes.

This funding reallocation comes after the abrupt end of a four year court case over the sharing of funds between public and charter schools. In a 4-3 vote, the ruling

The bills were put on the goveror’s desk the same day as passing through the legislature.

fundamentally from typical public schools.

The key difference is their ultimate motive: profit, not education. Epic Charter Schools specifically was caught a few years ago engaging in various measures to control test scores and attendance numbers in order to make their schools appear more effective than in actuality. If the final numbers on paper go up; the profits go up. The actual educational outcomes are irrelevant.

Ironically, the method Epic Charter Schools used to profit so heavily was by enrolling “ghost students”, the exact phenomenon Governor Stitt claimed the new funding change was combatting. Essentially, students who switched from public schools to Epic were given a “learning fund” of at least $800. This caused a boost in enrollment, which in turn boosted the funding of Epic. However, these new enrollees often had no intention of actually partaking in Epic’s education system, making them true “ghost students”. Epic was actually ordered to repay the state $11.2 million for this practice, though they have repeatedly delayed the payment.

The push for “school choice” by the right wing, otherwise known as school privatization, is in clear conflict with the basic purpose of education. Republicans like Governor Stitt know this and don’t care; education is not a priority of his. Part of what fuels the political push for charter schools is campaign funding, plain and simple. David Chaney, one of Epic’s co-founders, has sent over $5,000 to Stephanie Bice, a Republican Representative. Both Chaney and Epic’s other founder, Ben Harris, gave $2000 to Senator Inhofe. Together with their spouses, the co-founders spent over $180,000 on the 2018 elections. No one in this racket really cares about freedom or “school choice.”

courtesy Wikimedia Commons Governor Stitt signed the new funding plan last Wednesday.

courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Variety

The Collegian: 6

5 April 2021

“The Need” more than a thriller novel

What seems to be a simple home invasion thriller overlies a complicated story about the isolation of motherhood.

Madison Walters Student Writer

It’s not often that I purchase a book solely because of the cover. I recently made an exception to this rule when I saw Helen Phillip’s “The Need.” Visually pleasing and alluring, the cover depicts a silhouette of a woman filled in by foliage. “The Need” tells the story of a mother, Molly, home alone with her two young children when she hears the noise of an intruder inside her home.

As the story progresses, it seems as if the intruder knows too much about her family.

Molly attempts to protect her two children from this unknown threat while simultaneously coming to terms with her own weaknesses. “The Need” falls within the genres of thriller and horror.

fear that comes with being a mother. On the first page of the book, readers are thrown directly into Molly’s home invasion, with every other chapter taking place earlier in the day. This clever technique adds quite a bit of suspense to the story as readers are forced to learn about earlier events in Molly’s day before continuing on in the present.

This novel ends up existing as something so much more than an intruder breaking into a woman’s house; it focuses on the isolation of motherhood.

“The Need” starts off as a genuinely terrifying novel, but as the story progresses, the novel loses the horror aspect within the home intruder element. That being said, the first 40 or so pages of the novel are more than enough to inspire a deep sense of dread within the reader, so much so that after reading these pages, I decided that reading this book at night was a bad idea. As I mentioned, the story quickly progresses past this element as the novel unveils its first plot twist. Phillips masterfully created a truly unexpected plot twist — a plot twist which

“... I decided that reading this book at night was a bad idea.”

Helen Phillips has also written “The Beautiful Bureaucrat,” “Some Possible Solutions” and “Yet They Were Happy.” Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Phillips’ writing is that she creates a world that is very similar to our own, yet has slight differences that somehow cause ripples within the fabric of existence.

Before starting, I would just like to say that this is a spoiler free review. “The Need” is a different kind of horror than we usually see. Rather than relying on grotesque descriptions of gore, this book showcases the horrors of motherhood, or rather the

readers should have seen coming, yet somehow evaded detection.

Despite the promising beginning of this novel, I couldn’t help but feel more than a little dissatisfied with the ending as it sort of fizzles out. Ending very ambiguously, the novel leaves several mysteries unsolved.

This may just be a preference of mine, but I don’t really care for stories that leave you with more questions than answers. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and Phillips’ unique writing style. “The Need” is available at all major book retailers. courtsey Helen Phillips’s Website

The novel has an overall 3.15 star review on Goodreads.

“Montero” music video riles up social media Already at 82.7 million views, Lil Nas X’s latest music video has inspired both an immense amount of support as well as controversy.

Joseph Breedlove Student Writer Montero Lamar Hill, also known as Lil Nas X, is a well known rapper from Georgia. Most people may recognize him from his hit 2018 country rap single “Old Town Road,” which remains popular to this day.

Lil Nas X just came out with a song that has garnered a significant amount of attention in an interesting way. The song is called “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and was released March 26, 2021. The song is definitely catchy, but there is more to the uproar it caused beyond the sound. The music video is what has caught everyone’s eyes. It is a very graphic music video featuring religious imagery, along with Lil Nas X giving Satan a lap dance.

himself. This could possibly be him battling something severe within himself.

This music video has gotten a ton of backlash. Conservative personality Candace Owens tweeted “Why has ‘oh, but I’m gay’ become a default excuse for immorality?”

Additionally, “gun girl” Kaitlin Bennett, tweeted a racially-charged question: “Do you still see your dad?”

The message behind the song and music video are there; I just think after having “Old Town Road” be a hit for all ages, this song and video threw people off. What Lil Nas X was also saying about his backlash is that in “Old Town Road,” he sings about lean and adultery, subjects that are not kidfriendly.

Buzzfeed actually summarizes the whole situation quite nicely: “The “Montero” video — Montero, by the way, is the rapper’s actual government name — is a clear sign that old, oppressive stories no longer have a hold on him. It quite literally demonstrates the power of imagining new futures and possibilities for oneself. And because of his

“This could possibly be him battling something severe within himself.”

The music video features a variety of costumes and makeup looks.

courtesy @lilnasx Instagram

Lil Nas X goes on to explain the opening of the music video, saying, “This is a reinterpretation of the story of Adam and Eve. The rapper is enchanted by a snakelike creature — played by Lil Nas X himself — who tempts him, opening his eyes to a world he never knew existed.” Another scene that holds a deeper meaning is the fact that he is being held hostage by different versions of

boldness, the next generation of Black queer youth may realize that they have the power to conquer their own devils too.” Of course, such daring reimaginings will stir up some controversy among the old guard.

The music video has 82.7 million views and will probably still climb each and every day. Eventually, I feel that this will blow over, and people will just respect Lil Nas X for who he is as being bold and outrageous.

Upcoming Campus Events Monday, April 5

Join a panel discussion at 6 p.m. with leaders and activists to stop the hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Also at 6 p.m., join the special programs alumni panel to hear about life after college and how to take full advantage of opportunities that are presented to you.

Finally, at 6 p.m., there will also be a special programs panel for Global Scholars with alumni discussing their career and post-college goals.

Tuesday, April 6

For the entirety of this Tuesday is Give Greater: 1 Day for TU, where you can support scholarships, research and the community through your gifts and donations.

Wednesday, April 7

At noon, you can Zoom with the library to learn how they can support you academically.

Also at noon, the Little Blue House will be giving away veggie lunches for you to pick up in an effort to offer sustainable and healthy options.

At noon, CaneCareers is hosting their event “Let’s Taco ‘Bout Internships” to discuss etiquette, expectations and networking, with free food offered from Elote.

Saturday, April 10

Hosted at 7:30 p.m., the Presidential Lecture series will feature Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, and it certainly sounds like it will be an interesting talk to attend.

Sunday, April 11

Thursday, April 8

Are you a young adult who wants to start investing? Join Student Financial Wellness to learn how at noon.

The Little Blue House is hosting Condom-manie! in an effort to promote safe sex by creating fashionable attire all out of condoms.

Around the time that TU Outdoors opens, spend your Sunday evening surrounded by the soft tune of jazz by the TU Jazz Improv Combo.

Also, keep an eye out for all of the giveways hosted at TU Outdoors throughout the week, from Redbull to cheeseburgers for the first 100 guests through the gates.

The State-Run Media

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5 April 2021

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