a student newspaper of the university of tulsa
february 6, 2017 issue 16 ~ volume 102
The Collegian: 2
Sports
6 February 2017
Men’s basketball starts tough six-game stretch
THE RICHARDS GROUP TRG JOB #: SBU-16-0050
COX. CONNECTED. A Year Of Investment. A Lifetime Of Returns.
CLIENT: SMU TITLE: Master’s College Print PUB: University of Tulsa Collegian INSERTION: November 2016 TRIM: 5.125" x 10.5" COLOR: CMYK LINE SCREEN: SNAP/85
Get A One-Year Master’s Degree
FOR QUESTIONS CALL: Kathleen Pendergast 214.891. 2918
Management Maximize your market value with a solid business foundation.
Business Analytics Launch your career in big data, marketing or consulting.
Finance Attain success in corporate finance, investment management and consulting.
Accounting Enhance your skills, prep for the CPA exam and jump-start your career at a top global accounting firm.
Sport Management Join the only sport management master’s program in DFW, the #5 sports market.
Hone your professional skills. Access 40,000 alumni in 80 countries. Jump-start your career.
Learn more at coxmasters.com.
photos by Dalton Stewart
Photos clockwise from top left: Junior Jaleel Wheeler drives to the hoop against the Bearcats in the 57–55 loss to Cincinnati on Wednesday. Wheeler led all Golden Hurricane scorers with 13 points. Junior TK Edogi fights for a ball on the floor in the 76–53 loss against Southern Methodist. Wheeler fights SMU defenders on his way to the basket.
SMU does not discriminate in any program or activity on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.
Earn Your Law Degree at the #1 Best Value Private Law School
SBU160050 Mstrs_Cllgn_5_1x10_5.indd 1
10/31/16 9:26 AM
• Tuition only $24,600/yr for all full-time JD students • Top 100 Law School (US News & World Report, 2017) • #1 Best Value Private Law School (PreLaw Magazine, 2016) • #25 in the nation for graduate employment in full-time longterm bar license required JD advantage positions • Merit-based scholarships available for those who qualify • Spring, summer, or fall start Learn more and apply for a fee waiver today: law.utulsa.edu/tuition2017
TU is an EEO/AA institution.
6 February 2017
Justin Guglielmetti is…
the
bleacher creature The littler guy! Everybody loves an underdog, and four weeks into the new year you’re not going to find one better than Yogi Ferrell. The speedy sparkplug out of Indiana was one of the most exciting players to watch in college basketball over the past two years but went undrafted last June. Generously listed at 6’ tall and without the transcendent handles and shot that one needs to succeed at that size, Yogi was signed by the Brooklyn Nets before the start of the season, for whom he played a grand total of ten games before being released. These are the same Brooklyn Nets who are by far the worst team in the league this year and don’t have a single legit NBAcaliber player outside of Brook Lopez, mind you. A lesser heart would have given up there, but Ferrell landed himself a ten-day contract with the Dallas Mavericks, another team hovering around the cellar. Only this time, he put the league on notice. Ferrell started his first three games for the Mavs and helped lead them to impressive wins over the Spurs, Cavaliers and surging 76ers, dropping dimes and controlling the offense with a poise wholly unexpected for a player with his pedigree. And then against the Trail Blazers on Friday, Yogi went full supernova, scoring 32 points with nine threes in leading Dallas to its sixth win in seven games, as well as earning himself a two-year contract once his temporary one expires. Look, in the long run this will probably be nothing more than Linsanity 2.0, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the hell out of this ride while we’re on it. The high road On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announced that the United States wrestling team would be allowed entry into Iran for the Freestyle World Cup. This came just two days after it was announced that the wrestlers’ visas would be suspended in response to Donald Trump’s recent travel ban, which included Iran. Regardless of where you stand politically with regard to Trump’s policy, you have to take your hat off to Iran for remaining civil and allowing these athletes to compete on the biggest stage of their sport. With so much negativity and tragedy in the news over the past couple weeks, it is always heartening to see groups who might otherwise be enemies coming together in the name of friendly competition. Most of us won’t actually watch the Wrestling World Cup, but that’s okay; it’s enough to know that there is a significant gesture being made in the name of unity. This is why we watch sports. Like there was any doubt What a game, huh? I didn’t think it was possible for a quarterback to make his opponent look so hopeless by comparison, especially since the opponent is like 10 years younger, armed with a better offense and just won the MVP. Kind of makes you sad if you’re a Falcons fan doesn’t it, to know that as long as Brady is still kicking, you don’t have a chance. Not that you shouldn’t have known better. *I wrote this before the game.*
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Congrats to [insert winner here] for winning [insert sports event here], the best game in [insert sport here].
Monday
Sports
Cardinals should count themselves lucky
Major League Baseball finally released its punishment for the Cardinals, who hacked the Houston Astros’ database, and it seems lenient. Justin Guglielmetti Student Writer
Buried at the bottom of the official list of “2016 sports controversies that set the nation’s watercooler talk abuzz” has been the hacking of the Houston Astros’ player personnel files by employees of their former NL Central rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s not hard to see why the general public doesn’t care too much about this: no star players were involved, it deals with technical computer stuff and frankly, baseball just isn’t a sexy thing to talk about when steroids aren’t involved. But make no mistake, this was a major story that will go down as a moment of particular infamy for baseball historians. Just ask Chris Correa, the former scouting director for the Cardinals. Correa’s name can now be uttered in the same breath as Shoeless Joe Jackson’s or Pete Rose’s, as he has been given a permanent ban on involvement with MLB by commissioner Rob Manfred. It’s quite an exclusive club that Correa now belongs to, reserved only for those deemed to have committed the most egregious sins against the integrity of the game and filled mostly with anonymous players doubling as gamblers and criminals from the dead-ball era. You won’t even find any vilified steroids us-
No Events
ers on there (thank God). So what did this poor guy do exactly to deserve all this ire? Well, Correa didn’t just take a quick peek at an unattended computer of an Astros’ employee, he combed through Houston’s player evaluation database 48 times through five employee emails over the span of two and a half years, gained access to Astros analyst Sig Mejdal’s personal email, and spied on the team’s trade notes “at least 14” times. The guy went full blackhat and the investigation concluded that it wasn’t even out of some misplaced sense of righteousness. Though Correa claimed that he initially breached Houston’s system to see if Mejdal, a former Cardinals employee, had himself stolen any information, Correa only ever seemed to look for information that pertained to his own role with the club. Sticking it to Mejdal, a noted rival when the two worked together, and earning a promotion were a couple of nice byproducts. Oh and in case you still don’t have a good idea of how serious this scandal is, you should know that Correa is currently serving a 46-month sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty last January. Now with the hammer being brought down so harshly on Correa, you’d think that the organization he was benefiting would be facing similar charges. But you would be wrong. Take a look at the punishments levied against the Cardinals and they look like a slap on the wrist. A $2 million fine to the Astros? Chump change for an MLB organization as rich as the Cardinals, they are valued at $1.6 billion! The loss of their first two draft picks? A little more of a sting-
er, except that the Cardinals’ highest picks were numbers 56 and 75, the result of their signing Dexter Fowler this offseason. Given how volatile MLB prospects are, especially those chosen after the first round, this stands little chance to significantly impact St. Louis moving forward. Now I want to be fair, the reason the team is facing such comparatively light punishment compared to its employee is because the investigation concluded that Correa was acting alone. There is no truth to the rumors that Manfred went so easy on the Cards because he wants to maintain their pristine image as the model MLB franchise, or because Joe Buck slipped him a twenty under the table. Still, it feels here as if St. Louis is escaping having to take responsibility for Correa’s actions. Regardless of whether or not he truly acted alone (I personally find it unlikely that nobody else in the organization as privy to the information, but we can’t punish based on suspicion), his club benefited from information obtained illegally, and may continue to do so for years to come. And you can make an argument that the Cardinals were complicit in the crime for failing to notice inside information filtering into their analysis for the better part of three years. At the very least, it seems to me like they should have been faced with a heftier fine and the loss of draft picks for several more years, not just this one. But instead, it seems destined that everyone will forget this and go right back to lauding the Cardinals’ management and fans as the “classiest” in the game. I can’t wait.
to be going Tulsa’s way. At that point, the offense sputtered, scoring only three points in the final six minutes of the game. This allowed the Bearcats to get back into the game, and tie with with thirty seconds remaining. Tulsa had the ball and a chance to take the lead, but turned the ball over on their next possession. This turnover allowed Cincinnati to hold the ball for the last shot. They did so, and sunk a game-winning jump shot with four second remaining to win the game 57–55, sending disappointment through Tulsa fans everywhere. Tulsa was able to overcome Cincinnati’s strengths of strong defense and interior play. The Golden Hurricane’s 40 percent shooting from the field was impressive against the team ranked second in the nation in that defensive category. Tulsa also outrebounded Cincinnati by 10. Despite being the better team for the majority of the game, the final six minutes proved to be enough to doom the Golden Hurricane. After the heartbreak against Cincinnati, the SMU Mustangs came to town. Tulsa hung around for the majority of the first
half, until the Mustangs scored 12 unanswered points to end the half with a nine point advantage. In the second half, the Golden Hurricane had no answers for the SMU guards. At this point, the game seemed to be an emotional letdown after the Cincinnati game, as SMU guards Sterling Brown and Shake Milton seemed to be able to do whatever they wanted against the Tulsa defense. The intensity was not there for Tulsa. SMU pushed the lead to make any comeback impossible, and took the game 76–53. After the two losses, Tulsa is now 12–10 (6–4 AAC) on the season. The schedule doesn’t get any easier from there, though. They are now tied for third in the conference, and both games this week are against the two teams they are tied with. First up is an away game at Memphis on Tuesday at 6 p.m., followed by a home game against Houston on Saturday at 5 p.m. The next few games are crucial for the Golden Hurricane to get some momentum and quality wins as conference play continues.
get any sort of early edge. The first quarter ended tied at 19, and the first half ended with a one-point advantage for the Golden Hurricane 38–37. Tulsa came out of the break and took the lead again 40–37, but East Carolina tied it at 40 before Tulsa responded with an 18–11 run to take the largest lead of the game, and they went into the final quarter up 58–51. The Golden Hurricane extended their lead to 11 in the fourth quarter, but a 15–3 run by East Carolina erased their deficit and gave the Pirates a 79–78 lead with only 52 seconds left to play. Dickson scored four unanswered points to take a 82–79 lead, but East Carolina made a free throw and a buzzer beater to send the game into overtime. The Golden Hurricane scored the first seven points of extra period and went on to outscore the Pirates 18–10 giving them the 100–92 win. Head Coach Matilda Mossman discussed
the Golden Hurricane’s performance after the win. “I am just really proud of our kids. It was a gutty effort by a bunch of people. Look at how many minutes Erika [Wakefield] played with 42, but she is a trooper and a stud. Kendrian had a career-high 27 points and her a Liesl [Spoerl] both get a double-double, and Shug finishes just one board shy of a double-double. All of them were just solid tonight.” “I didn’t think we defended well early on, but then we went through a spurt where we had to get stops and we did. It is just an unbelievable feeling knowing we had the kind of effort and got rewarded for our effort.” On Sunday Tulsa traveled to take on the Huskies, but the result was similar to their first game of the season. Dickson and Ebony Parker put up double-digits for the Golden Hurricane, but they couldn’t stop UConn’s offensive pressure. The next game for the Golden Hurricane is against Temple on Wednesday.
Men’s basketball faces rough week The men’s basketball team started their toughest stretch of the season with home games against Cincinnati and SMU, but suffered losses in both. Joseph Edmunds Sports Writer The Golden Hurricane men’s basketball team faced their toughest week of the season, and the results reflected that. Cincinnati and SMU, the top two teams in the American Athletic Conference standings, each came to the Reynolds Center this week. The No. 14 ranked Cincinnati Bearcats visited first. Tulsa came to play in this game, and it showed early. The Golden Hurricane scored the first nine points of the game. Cincinnati fought back, and the first half kept close. At halftime, the score was tied at 30. In the second half, Cincinnati took the first lead, but Tulsa came back and took their largest lead of the game. Up by 11 with six minutes left in the game, the game seemed
Women’s basketball splits week, sets record
The women’s basketball team set a school record for points in their win over ECU, but fell to the No. 1 team in the country shortly after that. Matt Rechtien Sports Editor
The Golden Hurricane women’s basketball team set a school record in points against East Carolina this week, putting up 100 points in the eight point win over the Pirates. They traveled to Connecticut over the weekend, losing 96–50. Freshman led the way against the Pirates with Kendrian Elliott (27) and Shug Dickson (20) both putting up 20-plus point games for the Golden Hurricane. This was the fifth time in the last six games that Dickson put up 20 or more points. The first two quarters saw the teams trade the lead as neither would let the other one
Tuesday 6
The Collegian: 3
7
Men’s Basketball @ Memphis 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday 8
Women’s Basketball @ Temple 11:00 a.m.
Thursday
Feb 6 – 12
9
No Events
Saturday
Friday
10
Men’s Tennis @ Tennessee
Track & Field @ Iowa State Classic Softball vs. Fordham 10:00 a.m.
Women’s 11 Tennis vs. Sam Houston State 12:00 p.m. Men’s Basketball vs. Houston 5:00 p.m.
Softball vs. CSUN 12:00 p.m. Women’s Basketball Softball vs. Northwestern vs. UCF 1:00 p.m.
10:00 a.m.
Sunday
12
Softball @ Arizona 1:00 p.m. Women’s Tennis vs. Middle Tennessee 2:00 p.m.
The Collegian: 4
News
6 February 2017
SA charters new TU Young Professionals club The club will invite speakers from any field to campus to encourage students to network.
on their fields and trying to introduce new fields with each speaker,” Carlson said. Carlson hopes to include fields that are not
as commonly represented by on-campus organizations. While the name may bear resemblance to
Michaela Flonard News Editor SA recently charted TU Young Professionals Club. According to President Andrew Carlson, a junior computer science major, the club will act as a “platform for students to be able to reach out and network with community leaders.” The club will not be restricted to one major, in an effort, according to Carlson, to “interact with everyone versus a select few … it doesn’t hurt to meet new people outside of your field.” Events planned thus far reflect this. Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum will speak at the club’s first meeting on March 6, while the next meeting will feature Yale professor and OB-GYN Amanda Kallen. “We’re reaching out to leaders based
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
TU Young Professionals hopes to unite students with local leaders, including Mayor G.T. Bynum.
the Tulsa Young Professionals organization outside of campus, the two are not related, though Carlson hopes they can collaborate on certain events. He would also like to partner with other organizations on campus, to engage in community service or a “day at the capitol” event. Carlson was inspired to create the club because he “didn’t feel like there was a club that provided networking with community leaders. There’s specific clubs that do a really good job providing networking with a specific topic or field, but I’d really like to reach out to all of those people.” For students unsure of their interest in the club, Carlson posed it as a way to “network, especially if you plan on staying in Tulsa or Oklahoma. It gives you an opportunity to interact with leaders and build platforms with local leaders and that way you not only have that networking experience but you have that web of communication.” The club is seeking to fill two chair positions and can be contacted through their Facebook page, UTulsa Young Professionals Club.
Sigma Nu re-established on campus after thirteen years The University of Tulsa’s Sigma Nu Fraternity chapter hopes to attract men who wouldn’t normally join a fraternity. Nick Rethford Student Writer Spring 2017 marks a new era for Sigma Nu Fraternity here at the University of Tulsa. No stranger to the campus, the chapter was established in 1951 and led a prosperous life until it was shut down in 2004 for financial reasons. Due to the overwhelming amount of Sigma Nu alumni in the surrounding Tulsa area, though, the fraternity has decided to return
for Sigma Nu. Charged with overseeing the chapter’s establishment and growth, he has broken down the semester into two parts. “The first six weeks is all about recruitment; my entire day is spent meeting oneon-one with potential recruits to really get to know them and see if they are a good fit,” he explains. “From there, I focus on training the new members. We will nominate and elect officers, and I will walk each officer through his duties. The goal is to get everything fully functioning, so by the time I leave at the end of the semester, they won’t even need me.” DeViney doesn’t want just any regular recruit, either. He hopes to create something that goes beyond the stereotypical fraternity and attracts students who normally wouldn’t
“The job of establishing a chapter of Sigma Nu on TU’s campus does have its share of hurdles...” to TU’s campus, and while this may not be an easy feat, the brothers of Sigma Nu are up for the challenge. At the front of the line is Will DeViney, an expansion and recruitment consultant
be interested in joining a fraternity. He is looking for young men who are academically-driven leaders who want to leave the university knowing that they’ve played a hand
in creating something that has changed TU for the better. “We are basically building this chapter from the ground up,” DeViney explains. “We need guys with strong values who can
courtesy Wikimedia Commons In 2004, the fraternity, whose crest is pictured above, was shut down for financial reasons after being on campus for over fifty years.
lay the foundation and set traditions for Sigma Nu that future brothers can build on.
Trying to make a name for this fraternity on a small campus like this with so many already established fraternities is going to be a challenge, so we need guys who are hard workers and have a clear vision of where they want this fraternity to go.” The job of establishing a chapter of Sigma Nu on TU’s campus does have its share of hurdles, though. DeViney has had to overcome plenty of obstacles, including finding young men who meet Sigma Nu’s standards that aren’t already committed to another fraternity in the roughly 4,500 undergraduates on campus, and dealing with the rumors that have surrounded the chapter’s closing back in 2004. He remains hopeful, though. “At the end of the day, guys join fraternities to be part of a brotherhood and have an impact on the surrounding campus and we can definitely offer that,” he concludes, “but Sigma Nu has an upper hand in that it’s a clean slate. It has the possibility to be completely different than any other fraternity, and if guys are willing to take a chance on it, it can definitely be something that this campus has never seen.” For more information about the new chapter, email will.deviney@sigmanu.org.
Guest professor discusses how manuscripts of New Testament were produced Edits over the years do not negate the validity of the New Testament, according to Professor Bart Ehrman. James Leahy Student Writer This past Thursday, Phi Beta Kappa, an honor society for the liberal arts and sciences, hosted a talk titled “Misquoting Jesus: Scribes Who Changed the Scriptures and Readers Who May Never Know,” given by Professor Bart Ehrman from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The lecture was held in Tyrell Hall and the main room was completely filled well before 7:00 p.m. when Professor Ehrman began talking. In his talk, Professor Ehrman focused on examining how the New Testament came to be through a historical lens. After a brief explanation of what his talk would center on, Professor Ehrman began by examining the Gospel of Mark. He explained that most biblical scholars agree that Mark was first written around 70 AD, about 40 years after the death of Jesus. Our oldest surviving copy of Mark is from around 220 AD, 150 years after it was first written. The copy was called P45 and about half the pages were missing, and those that remained were torn. The first complete record of Mark is from the 4th century, 300 years after the original Mark was written. This is not an uncommon story among many of the books of the
Testament was originally written in, and as such our oldest copies are all in Greek. There are around 5,500 surviving copies of these Greek manuscripts. 94 percent of these copies were made after the 9th century. Mistakes were obviously made when copying these manuscripts throughout the generations. That is not in debate among scholars. After all, there were no printing presses or printers to easily produce accurate copies. Instead, manuscripts were painstakingly copied by hand. This led to human error, but how much and how serious was it? Today, there are more differences in manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament. A vast majority of those mistakes are inconsequential spelling errors or errors that don’t come through in modern day translations. However, there were some serious blunders, such as entire missing lines or paragraphs. Since all of these manuscripts were copied by hand, a mistake in an older version would be repeated in all newer ones. However, by comparing the different manuscripts, many of these differences can be resolved. More serious errors were not mistakes at all, but intentional changes or removals. Some examples of intentional changes given by Professor Ehrman were John 7:53 to 8:11 and the last twelve verses of Mark. The passage of John is about Jesus defending the woman taken in adultery, by saying “he that is without sing among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” The last twelve lines of Mark say that Jesus appeared to many of his followers after his death, that believers
to have been altered, added or removed, many passages that scholars continue to debate and some we may never know about. He explained that this does not have to challenge whatever faith you may hold, unless it is a purely fundamentalist one. The content of his lecture is common knowledge among all biblical scholars, many of whom are still staunch believers. Professor Ehrman said whether or not the New Testament is the inspired word of
God, it is an undebatable fact that it has been altered and changed over time by human hands. This is a fact that should be acknowledged and accounted for. But as Professor Ehrman pointed out, the fact that it has changed over time does not destroy its validity. All of our ancient texts, such as those of Plato and Aristotle, have undergone this same process. One should simply be aware of the factors that affected the New Testament we possess today.
“...this does not have to challenge whatever faith you may hold, unless it is a purely fundamentalist one.” New Testament. This poses a question: is a copy of Mark from 300 years after it was first written still accurate, and are the other books accurate to the source material as well? To answer this question, Professor Ehrman called our attention to all the Greek manuscripts we had of the Bible. Professor Ehrman focused on the Greek manuscripts because Greek was the language the New
who have been baptized will be saved, those who don’t believe will be condemned and that Jesus ascended into Heaven. Both of these passages appear nowhere in the oldest complete records of Mark and John. Because of this, most scholars are in concurrence that these passages were added in later and were not in the original texts. Professor Ehrman concluded by saying that there are some passages which we know
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
According to Professor Bart Ehrman, there are more differences in between manuscripts than words in the New Testament.
News
6 February 2017
The Collegian: 5
Local Planned Parenthood provides comprehensive scope of care Congress continues attempts to block Planned Parenthood’s funding and reroute money to local health centers, but the community impact is rarely discussed. Raven Fawcett Student Writer Planned Parenthood has a bitter history with Congress. Every election and legislative cycle, someone proposes that Planned Parenthood, with its alleged mishandling of medical practices and its abortion policies, be defunded. President Donald Trump is prolife, and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is vocally in favor of defunding the organization that specializes in sexual, reproductive and LGBTQ+ health. Now, with a Congress ever more inclined to enact anti-Planned Parenthood policies, we look at the facts behind the issue. “Defund Planned Parenthood” is a solid campaign line, but it ignores the reality of Planned Par-
government. Planned Parenthood is, in effect, funded by how many patients they actually treat. Money also comes from the government’s Title X, which is another program targeted at providing healthcare to low-income people. Other funds come from grants and donors. People are free to seek treatment from local health centers at present, and Planned Parenthood’s success is directly tied to the amount of people that go to them for help. While Planned Parenthood is targeted for wasting tax dollars on services that could be offered elsewhere, it is also controversial for its abortion services. In the 2014-2015 reporting year, Planned Parenthood allocated three percent of its services to abortions. The implicit — and oftentimes explicit — argument is that three percent is too high a percentage. Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, the Director of Communication at Planned Parenthood Great Plains, explained the issue further. This effort, Lee-Gilmore said, was really about an individual’s ability to choose from whom and
“Planned Parenthood is, in effect, funded by how many patients they actually treat.” enthood’s source of funding. The health centers actually receive the bulk of their funds (around 75 percent) as reimbursements from Medicaid. Medicaid is insurance for lowincome people, and is funded both by individual states and the federal
when they get health care. To block funding to Planned Parenthood is “an unconstitutional effort to ban Medicaid patients precisely because they’re socioeconomically disadvantaged.” She went on to note that the majority of patients, both in the Tulsa area and at all Planned Parenthood centers
courtesy Wikimedia Commons Planned Parenthood is often targeted for providing abortion services, although only three percent of its 2014-2015 services were abortions. Critics claim users would be able to go to local community centers as an alternative.
across the country, are minorities and people with lower incomes. Lee Gilmore argues that disadvantaged groups rely on “the compassionate health care” at Planned Parenthood. If Planned Parenthood was defunded, which would effectively shut down the organization, patients would have to go to local health clinics. Congress people have long championed local health centers as alternative options for Planned Parenthood patients. When asked about the differences between Planned Parenthood and other options, Lee-Gilmore said that “many community health centers do not offer comprehensive sexual and repro-
ductive health care or long term birth control like IUDs.” She also mentioned that community health centers often struggle to keep up with patient demand for appointments, up to and including “weeks and months worth of wait times.” Planned Parenthood, in contrast, “prides itself on same day or next day appointment scheduling.” As it stands, Tulsa’s Planned Parenthood sees Medicaid patients every day. In fact, “Tulsa is really unique in that they offer pediatric and primary care” as well as “a comprehensive scope of care.” Lee-Gilmore added that Congress has not made any final decisions yet, and that citizens should understand that they can still impact
the future of Planned Parenthood by contacting their Senate representatives (many of whom are up for reelection in 2018). Many people across the US have already done so, placing tens of thousands of calls to their government representatives. Lee-Gilmore ended the interview by commenting on a potential issue with local health centers: “What you have at the end of the day is a capacity issue.” Many health centers could not handle the extra patients that would otherwise go to Planned Parenthood without being overwhelmed with the demand for their services.
“Children of the Civil Rights” documents Oklahoma’s lesser-known past The Greenwood Cultural Center screened “Children of the Civil Rights” and hosted a panel discussion which detailed the OKC lunch counter sit-ins and included three of the original child protesters. Kyle Crutchfield Student Writer Tulsa’s Greenwood Cultural Center kicked off Black History Month last Thursday with a screening of the 2015 documentary film “Children of the Civil Rights.” Directed by Oklahoma native Julia Clifford, “Children of the Civil Rights” tells the story of a group of African-American children who helped pave the way for desegregation in Oklahoma City during the Civil Rights Movement. On August 19, 1958, a group of
They were denied, and told to leave the store immediately. The kids did not budge. This continued in different restaurants throughout downtown Oklahoma City for six years. Led by Youth Council director and local schoolteacher Clara Luper, the kids sat quietly as white customers threw racial slurs, threats and even hot drinks at them. But they never threw punches, because the children had been taught not to engage in violence. A year and a half before the famous Greensboro lunch counter sitins, Ms. Luper’s children were pioneers for nonviolent protest. Now, nearly sixty years later, three of the original child protesters, Joyce A. Henderson, Joyce Jackson and Ayanna Najuma, as well as the father of director Julia Clifford and a protester himself, Bill Clifford, joined the Greenwood Cultural Center for a panel discussion on the Oklahoma City sit-in movement.
Clara Luper was not an option.” “Ms. Luper was my history teacher and the NAACP youth advisor. So we were obedient to her and we wanted to do anything and everything to please her,” said Jackson. “I didn’t realize until I was an adult that someone called us heroes,” she remarked. “I guess we really did make a difference.” Just about every Saturday morning from 1958 until 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed, Luper gathered her pupils together at church to pray, go over the rules of nonviolent protest, do drills and then head downtown to put their practice to the test. The children learned from Ms. Luper how to respond when they were spat at, verbally assaulted and manhandled. She even taught them how to position their bodies to avoid injury when the police forcibly removed them from their seats. “Because of that training we received, we were able to avoid violence,” said Henderson.
photo by Kyle Crutchfield
From left: Bill Clifford, Joyce Jackson, Julia Clifford, Ayanna Najuma and Joyce Henderson.
children from the local NAACP Youth Council walked into Katz drug store in downtown Oklahoma City and asked for service.
“I’m glad I did it as a kid, because as an adult, I don’t know if I would have been so obedient,” said Henderson. “But disobeying
“That’s one of the reasons I think our story was untold, because there was no violence,” said Najuma.
Although the Oklahoma City sit-in movement lasted for nearly six years and helped to desegregate all but one restaurant in downtown Oklahoma City, no national news media ever covered these events. “I lived in Washington, D.C. for a very long time,” said Najuma. “Even though I participated in numerous marches there, no one ever brought up the Oklahoma City sit-in movement. I think
11 when I had to pass by this bar where these people would be standing outside, all of them black. With my little books under my arms, I had to pass through what became a gauntlet. And as I passed through this gauntlet, it got very very quiet. Very quiet. And it dawned on me one night after I made the corner and was “safe” going up my street, “‘I wonder if this is what a black man feels like
“The children learned from Ms. Luper how to respond when they were spat at, verbally assaulted and manhandled.” that’s one of the reasons why Julia decided to make the film, because no one knew about us.” Eight years ago, Clifford asked her dad, Bill, to name a significant moment in his life. Bill responded, “the sit-ins in Oklahoma City.” “I grew up in Oklahoma and I never heard that story,” said Clifford. “So I went to the library, and there was only one book left on Clara Luper.” She got the book, and immediately she knew that this was something special. “I was hooked.” For the next eight years, Clifford researched the sit-ins, compiled old videos and photos related to the sit-ins and conducted interviews with the people involved in the sitins, including Henderson, Jackson and Najuma, to craft what would finally become “Children of the Civil Rights.” “I really wanted to tie Oklahoma’s story to the national story,” said Clifford. Bill Clifford, the selfproclaimed “Producer of the director,” was undoubtedly a rich source of information for his daughter because he participated in the sit-ins. “I joined in 1960, which was two years after the sit-ins began,” said Bill. One of the reasons for his involvement begins with a harsh realization he had as a young adult. “I was born and raised in Boston, and during my freshman year of college I worked at the Boston Public Library. The library closed at 10 p.m., and I had to take a trolley to get back to Roxbury where I lived. So it was nearly
in a white community.’” “When we were young, fear was not a conversation topic,” said Henderson. “We knew we were on a mission. We knew something was wrong with not having the same opportunities that everyone else had. But we didn’t know it was a movement.” “We were young, we had no reason to be frightened,” said Jackson. “It was exciting just to know that we were going to get a chance to go to jail!” she laughed. “I got my chance to go to jail a couple of times, but we got out pretty fast. Ms. Luper shared with me that we had lots of angels watching over us. I didn’t know who those people were, but she later shared with me that they were people who were donating money to help us get out of jail,” Jackson said. “I’m honored that I was a part of Ms. Luper’s program.” “I was seven years old, and I sat in until I was fourteen when the Civil Rights Act was passed,” said Najuma. “Having the opportunity to see the difference in my own growth and development over time was huge for me. I can say that was one of the contributing factors in me becoming the woman that I am today.” The event concluded with a silent auction of donated items. For every dollar raised, Clifford will send a free link to “The Children of the Civil Rights” to a teacher in America. She hopes to send out over 100,000 links in the near future.
News
The Collegian: 6
6 February 2017
Trump’s executive order on immigration affects students Universities seek to alleviate international students’ concerns following President Trump’s recent executive order. Kayleigh Thesenvitz Social Media Manager Of all the controversial executive orders made in the last few weeks, one in particular ,titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” has caused significant rife in Washington, DC and garnered an emotional response from international students on campus. The content of the order was not particularly shocking considering that on the campaign trail in 2016 Trump called for “a total and complete shut down of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.” The stated purpose of the order was to “ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles.” Written into the order is the concern that “numerous foreign-born individuals have been convicted or implicated in terrorismrelated crimes since September 11, 2001, including foreign nationals who entered the United States after receiving visitor, student or employment visas or who entered through the United States refugee resettlement program. Deteriorating conditions in certain countries due to war, strife, disaster and civil unrest increase the likelihood that terrorists will use any means possible to enter the United States.” The order prohibits refugees from Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen for 120 days and refugees from Syria indefinitely. Additionally, it prohibits citizens of those countries with any visa (school, work or travel) from entering the country for 90 days. Some media outlets have retitled the order “the Muslim ban” because each of the seven countries is predominantly Muslim.
According to Pew research data, approximately 12.9 percent of all people of Islamic faith live in these seven countries. Protests have risen all across the world in the week following Trump’s executive order. Several airports in the US have been the stomping grounds of protestors as well as the streets of London, Paris and Washington, DC. The message shared at many of the protests was similar to one chanted outside the Los Angeles International Airport on January 29: “No ban. No wall. Sanctuary for all!” One conscientious objector, acting Attorney General Sally Yates, was fired by Trump after ordering Justice Department lawyers not to defend Trump’s executive order. President Clancy sent out an email to all students and faculty on January 29 which said, “Learning thrives when scholars around the world are free to collaborate. As an academic community that is home to 1,047 students from 74 other nations, The University of Tulsa is troubled by President Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order suspending visas for travelers from seven nations, including some nations that are home to current TU students.” “The university understands and strongly supports the imperatives of national security, but it also cautions against measures that are overly broad and that carry unconsidered consequences that harm scholarship, commerce, individuals and families and the ideals of opportunity that have traditionally
courtesy Wikimedia Commons Trump’s executive order prohibits refugees from Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen for 120 days and refugees from Syria indefinitely, causing issues at immigration centers such as the one pictured above.
or staff members are encouraged to reach out to Pam Smith, director of international student services, or Earl Johnson, vice president of enrollment and student services. We take our commitment to campus-wide security very seriously and appreciate your input,” the letter concluded. OU President David Boren and OSU President Burns Hargis shared similar sentiments to their students, encouraging stu-
“Her greatest fear, however, is that her parents, aunts and uncles who now live in the US might be forced to leave...” made America great,” Clancy wrote. “TU is rich in diversity, and our commitment to humanity is embedded into our mission, which will not be compromised. This is why, today – and every day that follows – we stand together as one family, respectful, united and strong.” “Any students or employees who have concerns about their safety or the wellbeing of any of our international students, faculty
courtesy Pride Immigration Students with visas are among those affected by the executive order.
dents from the seven listed countries to avoid travelling at all until the 90 day ban has run its course. Sarah Ghazi-Moradi is a Community Service Specialist for TU’s Association of International Students and has dual citizenship in the US and Iran. “When the order was signed, my father was returning home from a brief trip to Iran to visit our extended family. Before boarding a flight in London, my father and a few other Iranians were told not to board the plane because of the order. It’s hard to imagine your parent being denied entry into a country because of an ignorant executive order,” Ghazi-Moradi said. “Although I have dual citizenship, there is also a fear amongst many Iranians that I know that our dual citizenship will not be sufficient. Iran has been classified as such a dangerous target that sometimes we fear that despite being Americans, we will be recognized as solely Iranians, and subsequently a threat, in the eyes of our government and peers,” she shared. Her greatest fear, however, is that her parents, aunts and uncles who now live in the US might be forced to leave as a result of this order. “One of the most encouraging things from TU’s administration has been President Clancy’s immediate responses to Trump’s executive order and election,” she
said. Ghazi-Moradi believes that “Clancy has already demonstrated that he fully supports all students of our campus, regardless of the political climate.” Ghazi-Moradi is proud of TU’s International Student Services office and the Association of International Students for the work they have done to stem the effects of hateful rhetoric in the media. However, “My hope is that social clubs and organizations work to further bridge the gap between international students and domestic students. If we could all join together as a united student body, and support one another, a lot of students would be less afraid of this administration, because they would know that they have a community of love and support behind them.” For scared students like Ghazi-Moradi there is hope. On Friday, February 4, one US District Judge James Robart ruled in favor of Washington state, which sued the federal government on the grounds that the executive order harmed the state’s interests and residents. Robart’s ruling, which applies nationwide, froze all relevant provisions of the order. Then, on Saturday, the Department of Human Services announced that in accordance with Robart’s ruling they suspended any and all actions implementing the affected sections of the executive order. However, this issue isn’t over yet. The White House has requested a formal appeal, and President Trump has sent out a barrage of tweets referencing the incident. Those tweets include: “What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?” “Why aren’t the lawyers looking at and using the Federal Court decision in Boston, which is at conflict with ridiculous lift ban decision?” “The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart. Bad people are very happy!”
Panel educates students on meaning of hijab across cultures After a hijab styling session for World Hijab Day, the Malaysian Student Association, Association of International Students and SA hosted a panel to discuss the hijab. Grace McFee Student Writer TU students came this together this week in a show of solidarity and compassion to celebrate World Hijab Day, an annual event that has only become more important in light of the president’s recent ban on immigration. The Malaysian Student Association, partnered with the Association of International Students and Student Association, sponsored a hijab styling session and an informational panel for the student body. Holly Laird, Co-Director of the TU Women’s and Gender Studies Program; Twilla Gibbons, retired Methodist minister; Aliye Shimi, Associate Director of Tulsa Metropolitan Ministries; Jennifer Smith, freshman; and Sara Azami, senior, all sat on the panel to discuss the meaning of modesty across cultures and faiths. The forum first addressed the common assumption that the hijab is a symbol of oppression, expressed best when Shimi, who didn’t begin wearing a hijab until after 10 years of marriage, said: “The misconception
that women are forced to cover is a ludicrous claim. The Quran says there is no compulsion in religion … it is actually a sin to force anyone to do something.” In Arabic, the word hijab literally means “to cover” and is a symbol of modesty, devotion and even empowerment to women across the world. Gibbons quoted 1 Corinthians to show that even Paul, one of the apostles, claimed the way women dress in worship is something everyone must decide for themselves. Smith, a Christian, stated that “modesty is a separation from the world … it is being a light to the world and demonstrating a physical difference.” The panel members made it a point to show that not only Muslims cover themselves as a symbol of modesty, citing that Christian women also traditionally covered their heads for worship and that
countries around the world. “My hijab is a sign of modesty, and in America it is also a sign of bravery … wearing a scarf and coming here, it’s the first thing people notice about you,” said Azami. Laird emphatically argued that “the whole problem is that we look at someone, what they look like and decide we know everything about them.” There are over 20,000 Muslims in Tulsa and, as Shimi said, “you walk past Muslims all the time, even if you may not know it...a piece of cloth doesn’t make a terrorist.” Laird also made it clear that she believes “Muslim women should be allowed to make the choice to wear the hijab if they want to wear it.” Gibbons remarked: “Spirituality and sexuality are the two most mysterious, complex concepts of our lives … it is ludicrous to judge someone based on how they decide to express those things.”
“Hate is very powerful … fear is a very powerful tool used to divide us and we need to overcome that.” Gibbons believes that “what TU students did for World Hijab Day, promoting education and talking face-toface, is the best way to combat bigotry and common misconceptions.” Shimi concluded the forum by saying: “TU is an amazingly diverse university, and being able to put a face to that irrational fear is the first step to getting over it.”
“The panel members made it a point to show that not only Muslims cover themselves as a symbol of modesty...” many women of other faiths still do. “Nuns, Hasidic Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and many others all cover themselves as a form of modesty … it is a privatization of sexuality,” said Shimi. The panel then moved on to a discussion of the discrimination many women who cover face both in America and in other
In response to the recent political situation, Laird claims “we are at a time when crises have made us face our beliefs.” She believes the immigration ban has forced Americans to come to terms with their own opinions and with how they want to present themselves to the rest of the world. Shimi continued this thought by saying:
photo by Grace McFee From left: Samra Arain and student writer Grace McFee participated in World Hijab Day at TU.
6 February 2017
Jan. 16 12:40 a.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to the Kappa Alpha fraternity for report of an intoxicated student who was being belligerent to other members of the fraternity. Upon arrival officers met with the reporting party who directed officers to the intoxicated student. It was determined that the student was underage, the alcohol in their room was confiscated and they were directed to stay in their room the rest of the night. 2:30 a.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to take a report of a possible assault. Written statements from the victim and the alleged assailant were taken. The victim filed a report with the Tulsa Police Department and the investigation is ongoing. 3:10 p.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to a report of an auto burglary. The victim stated that an individual entered their unlocked vehicle while it
News
was parked off campus. The individual removed the victims University ID and a set of keys issued by the University of Tulsa for athletics. The victim was advised to contact Tulsa Police Department to file a report.
non University affiliated individual. The individuals had communicated via a social media outlet. The individual was advised to report the incident to the social media outlet and to their local police department.
10:00 p.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers received an anonymous report of possible hazing occurring in a fraternity house. Officers made contact with the president inside the house who advised the noise was from their meeting. Officers advised them to keep the noise level down, the president agreed they would do so.
Jan. 18 7:50 a.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to investigate a suspicious person. Officers spoke with a student who stated that an unidentified University affiliated individual has appeared to follow them on multiple occasions as they walk to their vehicle in the West Residential parking lots. The student was unsure if it was intentional or coincidental. Officers advised the student to contact Security immediately with any further incidents or if an escort is needed.
Jan. 17 11:20 a.m. While on routine patrol at Oxley Medical Building, University of Tulsa campus Security Officers had an individual walk in. Officers stopped the individual who initially did not want to identify them self and wanted medical services from the clinic. Officers stated the clinic was not open to the public and the individual was asked to leave the property. The individual became upset, but complied. A contact card was completed. No previous contacts or current warrants were found. 1:50 p.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers investigated a possible check scam. A non University affiliated individual reported to Officers via telephone about a check cashing scam. The individual received a bogus University of Tulsa check from another
Nathan Gibbons Distribution Manager
Terrorist attack in Quebec A week after a gunman shot and killed six men while they were praying at a Quebec mosque, hundreds of Canadians formed “rings of peace” around mosques as Muslims went to Friday prayer. Yael Splansky, a rabbi who helped advocate the events, told the Canadian Press “No Canadian should be afraid to go to their house of worship to pray... Houses of worship are sacred and must be protected.” According to the rabbi, the idea came from Muslims who stood guard outside of a synagogue in Oslo in 2015 during a time of antisemitism in France and Denmark. Fifty people were praying at the Québec City Islamic cultural center on January 29 when Alexandre Bissonnette, a 27 year old university student, opened fire in the mosque. “It is with a heavy heart that we come together this afternoon to grieve the loss of these innocent lives,” Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, said last Thursday. Bissonnette, described as an anti-immigrant Trump supporter and far-right sympathizer by those who knew him, has been charged with six counts of first degree murder and five counts of attempted murder.
Seattle judge blocks Trump’s travel ban
10:45 a.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers spoke with a non-University affiliated individual via telephone about suspicions regarding a University check. Another non University affiliated individual had attempted to cash the check after thinking they received it from an on-line grant application. Officers informed the individuals the check was fraudulent. The individual was advised to report the incident to their local police and postmaster.
The Collegian: 7
ceived an email and a University check from an unidentified individual who instructed them to cash the check and mail a portion of it to another unidentified person and location. The Communication Center advised the individual it was a scam. 1:00 p.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to University Square West apartments in reference to vandalism. An individual left a bag of dog feces outside of the victim,s apartment door. The same apartment has been targeted 3 times in various incidents involving trash, eggs, and dog feces. 5:45 p.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to the United Ministries house in reference to a student’s vehicle being missing. Officers were able to determine that the student’s vehicle had been towed due to parking on a private drive without authorization. Officers were able to notify the owner of where their vehicle was and the information needed to regain their vehicle. The Collegian does not produce or edit the Campus Crime Watch except for content and brevity.
10:45 a.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers spoke with a non-University affiliated individual via telephone. The individual re-
Thursday, February 9 at 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. College of Law, Courtroom Press vs Autocrats: How To Preserve Media Freedom Please join us for a lecture by Mahir Zeynalov, the journalist and free press advocate who rose to prominence amid the Turkish government’s crackdown on reporters. He appears regularly on CNN, BBC, and NBC and is an expert on both Turkey and Syria. He will talk about global struggles to defend a free and open press. Opening remarks by University of Tulsa Professor Tamara Piety. Please R.S.V.P. to barbette-veit@utulsa.edu receive a free lunch (limited quantities). Thursday, February 9 at 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Lefty’s on Greenwood, Mezzanine Public Radio Tulsa’s The Give and Take The lively exchange of ideas. NPR fans. Chili-Cheese Fries. Cold beverages. Join us for OUR inauguration of this new opportunity for civil conversation Thursday, February 9, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., at Lefty’s on Greenwood. We’ll chat with two freshmen state representatives about their first week on the job. We’ll even have door prizes! You’ll meet District 70 House Representative Carol Bush (R), and District 72 House Representative Monroe Nichols (D). We’ll check in on their initial impressions of the 56th Legislative Session, and talk about their hopes for the year ahead. And you are part of the conversation too: bring your questions, your open mind, and your willingness to listen. You’ll find us upstairs on the mezzanine at Lefty’s on Greenwood. We’ll nosh, mix, and mingle for a bit, then the conversation with our guests gets going around 6:00. We’ll draw for a door prize or two during the evening, too (PUBLIC RADIO SWAG!)! Get together with us for a relaxed evening of good conversation and hanging out with your public radio peeps!
In Seattle last week, Federal Judge James Robart issued a temporary nationwide block on President Trump’s controversial travel ban. The rule comes against government lawyers’ claims that states did not have the standing to challenge Trump’s executive order. The Department of Justice plans to place an emergency stay on the ruling. The ban, created in an executive order, means anyone arriving from Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen or Iran can face a 90 day visa suspension. “The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people,” the White House said in a statement. Though the Seattle ruling is the first to be applied nationwide, several federal judges have temporarily halted deportation of visa holders as multiple state attorneys have called the ban unconstitutional.
Thursday, February 9 at 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Lorton Performance Center, Meinig Recital Hall Concerts with Commentary: Violin Explosion The University of Tulsa School of Music presents Violinist Maureen O’Boyle in concert. O’Boyle will present a program of music for unaccompanied violin entitled “Violin Explosion. The program will journey from the great Bach Unaccompanied Sonatas to the stunning explosion of violin technique and composition in the early 20th century. Enjoy music of Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Kreisler, as well as a brilliant but little known peer of these elite masters.
Iran sanctioned after testing missiles
Omani Night Dive into an unforgettable experience,come and learn about Sultanate of Oman history and culture. Lots of fun activities to enjoy.
Last Friday, Trump’s administration imposed sanctions against thirteen people and twelve companies following a ballistics missile test by Iran. The sanctions target some groups from China, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. The US Treasury Department’s acting sanctions chief, John Smith, said in a statement on Friday, “Iran’s continued support for terrorism and development of its ballistic missile programme poses a threat to the region, to our partners worldwide and to the United States.” The Treasury Department is likely referring to Iranian support for Shia militias. Iran called threats from “an inexperienced person” like Donald Trump useless and said they would come forward with reciprocal measures.
Attack thwarted at the Louvre
Police are trying to establish if a captured would-be-attacker was acting alone or on instructions when he attempted to enter the Louvre museum in Paris, investigators say. Around 10:00am local time last Friday, the attacker approached soldiers standing guard next to shops below the Louvre and shouted “Allahu Akbar” before attacking them. French soldiers were forced to shoot the machete-wielding man after he injured one of the soldiers. Investigators believe the man is a 29 year old Egyptian man who travelled to Paris from Dubai on a tourist visa. French President Francois Hollande said that “this operation prevented an attack whose terrorist nature leaves little doubt” and told an EU summit meeting on Friday that the suspect will be questioned when possible. The Louvre museum has seen a drop in visitors due to fears of militant attacks. France has been a consistent target for terrorist attacks, most notably the November 2015 Paris attacks, the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and last July when a militant drove through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice killing 130, 17 and 86 respectively.
Friday, February 10 at 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Student Union, Great Hall C
Friday, February 10 at 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tyrrell Hall, Auditorium The Vagina Monologues TU’s Department of Women and Gender Studies, Student Alliance for Violence Education, and Society for Gender Equality will be hosting a benefit production of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.” Doors open at 6:30. Tickets must be reserved in advance at Eventbrite. At the door, TU students will be charged $3 and others will be charged $5. All of the proceeds will be going to Domestic Violence Intervention Services of Tulsa. Also on: Saturday, February 11 at 7:00pm to 8:30pm Monday, February 13 at 12:00 p.m. Student Union, Alcove Consent Week: Relationship Warning Signs Lunch and Learn On Monday, February 13, Anne Sheaff, a faculty member from the Oxley College of Health Sciences will lead a lunch and learn on warning signs to look out for in relationships that might be unhealthy or abusive. Qdoba will be provided! The Collegian does not produce all event descriptions in the Community Calendar. Contact us at news@tucollegian.org with events.
Commentary
The Collegian: 8
6 February 2017
Proposed divorce reform harms personal liberty
Placing restrictions on when people are allowed to divorce forces unwarranted government action onto personal decisions. Justin Guglielmetti Student Writer In a 24/7 news cycle driven by a national political scene in which everyone appears to be losing their minds, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there is A LOT happening at the local level. Though generally less fun to talk about at dinner parties, state-level issues can often have just as much, if not more, of an impact on the everyday life of an average American. And rest assured, the things being debated are just as inane as those in Washington. Take the bill that was just recently proposed by Oklahoma state representative Travis Dunlap: House Bill 1277, titled the “Fairness in Fault Act,” seeks to put restrictions on the reasons for which a person can file for a divorce. If the bill is passed, couples will no longer be able to cite “incompatibility” as the reason for their intended divorce if one of
three conditions applies: the parties have children who are minors, have been married for over ten years or either party has filed a written objection to the divorce. Including those provisions seems to be an effort to paint this proposed legislation as somewhat moderate, a sort of commonsense approach to maintaining stable households. To the contrary, It is a gross intrusion on individual liberty and if passed, a stunning allowance of governmental overreach from the party that supposedly abhors big government. The underlying reasoning for the bill seems clear enough to me: it is the latest Republican attempt to reinforce the existence of the traditional nuclear family. Commonly heard in the platform of GOP politicians over the past decade is the refrain that “traditional marriage,” and by extension the families that arise from them, is under attack by the left. Certainly there is some (not-sothinly-veiled) homophobia in this rhetoric, as much of the reasoning for it comes from the particular religious views of the Evangelical wing of the party. Still, it’s a dangerous game to assume that every defense of the traditional American family is a bigoted one, as there are plenty of secular conservatives who choose to stake their argument on the importance of a stable, two-parent household. This is a position that I actually agree with; as study after study emerges which links childhood in a single-parent household to a higher risk of crime and poverty later in life, why shouldn’t it be a noble imperative to keep families together? However, my support for the idea only extends so far as it does not
affect the autonomy of the individuals in the marriage. When the government is dictating such a personal matter as who I can or cannot spend the rest of my life with, that is going way, way too far. This is simple stuff folks, right along with legalizing interracial or homosexual marriage. Two consenting adults can decide for themselves what is best for their relationship without government approval. If I get married because I think I love my spouse, then it turns out I’m miserable, I have every right to remove myself from the situation in pursuit of my own happiness. It may be emotionally difficult on my family, against the creed of my religion, a shirking of my own responsibilities as a husband and father… but as long as I am not harming my family or bringing about financial ruin,
involved in it at all. If the role of government is to protect individual rights and further the common good, then what business does it have in the private lives of its citizens? Perhaps one could make the argument that government regulates marriage in much the same way it does education or drug use; that is, to prevent negative externalities, in this case the higher likelihood for crime in emerging from a single-parent home. But if that is the case, then it has utterly failed at its intended purpose. According to the US Census Bureau, 1 in 4 children under the age of 18 is being raised without a father, an appallingly high figure that shows a clear lack of effectiveness at incentivizing marriage. Plenty of people would still choose to get married for personal fulfillment if government removed
“Two consenting adults can decide for themselves what is best for their relationship without government approval.” these would be my burdens to bear, not the government’s. Furthermore, even if one was hard-line on the idea that marriages must be made to stay together to protect the children, the bill oversteps and includes the over-tenyears provision. So after giving it a real go for eleven years in a childless marriage and then deciding that there just wasn’t a romantic connection anymore, a couple couldn’t get divorced? Give me a break. This seems as good a place as any to propose a truly radical idea regarding marriage: perhaps the government shouldn’t be
itself entirely, and it really does not seem likely that significantly more people would choose to live life on their own. Finally, I believe taking this libertarian approach to marriage would be the first step towards ending one of our country’s great present-day sectarian debates. A person, whether from a place of traditional religious convictions or genuine bigotry, may not like that two people are getting married, but remove government from the equation and they will no longer have any tool with which to fight it.
If you feel passionately about anything you read today, contact your representatives! (Representatives listed are for TU’s district) State Representative:
State Senator:
US Representative:
US Senator:
US Senator:
Monroe Nichols 2300 N. Lincoln Boul. Oklahoma City, OK 73105 Phone: 405-557-7391
Gary Stanislawski 7134 South Yale Av. Tulsa, OK 74136 Phone: 405-521-5624
Jim Bridenstine 2448 E. 81st St. Suite 5150 Tulsa, OK 74137 Phone: 918-935-3222
Jim Inhofe 1924 S. Utica Av. Suite 530 Tulsa, OK 74104-6511 Phone: 918-748-5111
James Lankford 5810 East Skelly Dr. Suite 1000 Tulsa, OK 74135 Phone: 918-581-7651
County term limits are integral for new ideas
Imposing a term limit on county officials will ensure that the people in power will be representative of the times in which they live. Nathan Hinkle Student Writer House Bill 2215, proposed by State Representative Sean Roberts, intends to set the term limit for county officials, ranging from sheriffs to district attorneys, to 24 years. Currently, there are no term limits for county officials. Each county official’s term lasts for four years. Through this bill, politicians cannot stay in office through consecutive terms as long as before. Recently, House Bill 2215 has come under fire for clerical errors that negatively impacted how people view the bill. In the first draft of the bill, it stated that county officials would be elected for a term of 24 years. In response to this error, Representative Roberts claimed “This was an obvious mistake. The bill was never meant to be written in its current form. It will be corrected before the bill moves forward.” A claim
being held against both versions of the bill is that it is an unnecessary bill to put forward when there are more important problems in Oklahoma than county term limits. These more important problems include education, budgetary issues and corrections. This term limit is higher than what is allowed for state legislators because they are limited to only 12 years of service between the house and the senate. However, some may argue that in smaller districts, there are not enough people qualified and able to take these county official positions. With this legislation, the positions could eventually be filled after their term limit expires with less qualified applicants instead of the current members. This could be problematic with a county such as Cimarron County. According to a 2013 census, Cimarron County’s population is only 2,335 people. Term limits are important because they provide a chance for different people to be elected rather than a solitary figure in one position. Even in small counties, there needs to be an eventual shift of power because it is fundamental to a democratic republic. After a potential length of 24 years, it is possible that the county officials’ beliefs have been set in stone unchanging to potential new ideas. In response to this problem, a fresh set of ideas and opinions are useful so that the county does not stagnate. Term limits have been set for both state and city officials. These term limits have allowed more variety in the state. County officials should be included in this measure.
tucollegian@tucollegian.org editor-in-chief
Hannah Kloppenburg managing editor
Giselle Willis Cuauhtle news editor
Michaela Flonard sports editor
Matt Rechtien variety editor
Trenton Gibbons commentary editor
James Whisenhunt satire editor
Sam Chott photo & graphics editor
Elias Brinkman
business & advertising manager
Paul Moses
social media manager
Kayleigh Thesenvitz web manager
Sam Chott
distribution managers
Nathan Gibbons, Adam Lux and Trenton Gibbons
@TUCollegian
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 accommodation of disabilities may be addressed to the University’s 504 Coordinator, Dr. Tawny Taylor, 918-631-3814. To ensure availability of an interpreter, five to seven days notice is needed; 48 hours is recommended for all other accommodations. Advertising Policy: Advertising appearing in this publication does not imply approval or endorsement by the University of Tulsa or The Collegian for the products or services advertised. For advertising information, email the Collegian at advertising@tucollegian.org. The deadline for advertising is 12 pm on the Friday prior to publication. Letter Policy: Letters to the editor must be less than 500 words and can be sent to tucollegian@tucollegian, or dropped off at Oliphant Room 110. Under no circumstances will anonymous letters be published. The name of the person submitting the letter must be published with the letter. We reserve the right to edit or reject all letters. The deadline for letters is 5 pm on the Friday prior to publication. Editing Policy: The Collegian reserves the right to edit all copy submitted by all writers. This editing may take place in many forms, including grammar corrections, changes in paragraph structure or even the addition or removal of sections of content. Editorial Policy: Columnists are solely responsible for the content of their columns. Opinions expressed in columns may not represent the opinions of the entire Collegian staff, the administrative policies of the University of Tulsa, the views of the student body or our advertisers.
6 February 2017
Commentary
The Collegian: 9
Leaving the UN would hurt US security
It is short-sighted to think that leaving the UN would be anything but inefficient and harmful to the United States’ security. Giselle Willis Managing Editor After World War II, leaders of the time gathered with one goal: never letting that mess happen again. To this end, the United Nations was formed in 1945 with the purposes of maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations between nations and achieving international cooperation, according to the charter. In January, however, Alabama representative Mike Rogers introduced a bill to stop United States involvement in the UN. The reasoning behind this bill is simple. As TU political science professor Dr. Gaurav Kampani explained, some find that the UN costs the government too much for what it’s
but remain in the organization, yet none of them have passed. Representative Rogers has been proposing the same bill, titled the “American Sovereignty Restoration Act,” since 1997. Those who oppose leaving the UN fear that Rogers’ bill could in fact go forward with the government’s newly explicit “America First” mantra. Of course, it’s also more convenient for politicians to spend money on things that result in clearly visible benefits. The average constituent probably isn’t going to be following UN actions, and if they are, they might actually be angry, as Trump was, that the UN Security Council just voted in December to declare Israel’s settlements illegal. Sarah Palin also called for President Trump to withdraw from the UN, saying that the United Nations is actually where “injustice is rewarded.” Nevertheless, just because the good of the UN is not immediately obvious to Americans doesn’t necessarily mean it is a useless organization: the value of the UN lies precisely in what it has the potential to prevent. William Schabas, international expert on human rights law, has argued extensively that “the world is a far, far safer place today than it was before the United Nations was established.” Dr. Kampani added that the cost of what we give to the UN pays for security. For example, he said, the money that we give the International Monetary Fund is to try to prevent another Great Depres-
“If... the US decided to stop contributing, our country would suffer along with the others.” worth, and that it should not be the United States’ burden to bear. Indeed, last year, the United States was the top financial contributor to the UN, having provided around 29 percent of the organization’s $7.87 billion peacekeeping budget. China gave the second highest amount at 10.3 percent. If the United States were to stop contributing as much money, the hope is that other countries would then step up and contribute more than they have been. In the past, bills have been proposed to reduce funding
sion; the money we give to the UN is to prevent refugee crises and terrorism by aiding peacekeeping efforts. Dr. Jeffrey Hockett, also a political science professor at TU, argued that reducing refugee crises has practical value beyond its obvious moral imperative. He linked the rise of “aggressive forms of right wing populism” with refugee influx, as was evident with the election of our current president. In the meantime, he said, refugees will only continue to increase “as a result of environ-
mental disasters associated with climate change.” If the UN doesn’t have the funding to help mitigate crises because the US decided to stop contributing, our country would suffer along with the others.
stitution and our international legitimacy along with it. He said this country has been investing in the UN since 1945, and if we were to leave a gap for other countries to fill, they might indeed start paying more, but
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
The United States will suffer from international isolation and less influence in relations with the countries pictured above if it leaves the United Nations.
American membership in the UN also protects our service members, explained Dr. Hockett. While the UN fulfills the role of a world government, its international humanitarian law considers torture a war crime. If US government officials are concerned that this would prevent the United States from torturing, they should note that torture, besides being morally despicable, has been deemed inefficient by a plethora of medics and social scientists. If the notion of helping refugees and stopping torture seems too wimpy for you, keep in mind that if the United States were to leave the UN, the UN Security Council would then be dominated by those countries which have been deemed, at best, our competitors, and at worst, our enemies: China and Russia. Dr. Kampani said that US withdrawal would be akin to destroying the in-
also gain more influence than us. Ultimately, Dr. Kampani compared the United Nations to a neighborhood council: if you wanted to organize a trash pick-up service, you could just call a meeting rather than have to call on everyone individually. This substantially reduces the transaction costs of organizing world movements, which is ever more important considering the rate of globalization. You might think it’s a better idea for you to forgo your turn patrolling the neighborhood to just stay at home with your gun, but then your neighbor’s stuff gets stolen and they can’t pay you back for that one time you lent them money to get rid of their tent worms. Both professors agree that concerned students should call their congressional representatives and encourage them to vote against the bill.
UC Berkeley rioters delegitimize education
College students, like anyone else, have the right to disagree, but should avoid silencing controversial opinions entirely. Trenton Gibbons Variety Editor The University of California, Berkeley sustained $100,000 worth of damage after 150 agitators in black masks stormed the campus last Wednesday, burning vehicles, launching fireworks, throwing molotov cocktails and smashing windows. They attacked a student in a Trump cap with pepper spray, damaged the construction site of a new dorm and wrecked metal barriers. When police arrived, the projectiles were turned on them. Though the rioters did eventually retreat off campus, they simply redirected their at-
Milo Yiannopoulos’ controversial stances brought 1,500 students to protest his appearance at UC Berkeley.
tention to the vandalism of numerous banks downtown. The purpose of this unrest? To prevent a Berkeley-hosted speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, a controversial — and admittedly contemptible — political celebrity. Yiannopoulos is most notorious for his editorship of Breitbart, the right-wing news and commentary website, among whose founding members is Steve Bannon, the man recently appointed as Trump’s Chief Strategist. Besides this, Yiannopoulos’ gone to great lengths to achieve political infamy. Despite his status as a gay immigrant, he was one of Trump’s loudest supporters during his presidential campaign, often referring to him as “Daddy” in interviews and acting as a model in the photoshoot “Twinks for Trump.” Yiannopoulos’ most recent exploits saw him hopping between universities, conservative and liberal alike, in his “Dangerous Faggot Tour.” Among his lecture topics were hatecrime hoaxes, America’s borders and race wars. There was vocal opposition at nearly all events although much of it simply feeds Yiannopoulos’ ego; a good portion of Yiannopoulos’ celebrity appeal is his candid approach to dealing with hecklers. Berkeley wasn’t even the first university to cancel Yiannopoulos’ lecture after protesters resorted to violence, but it is perhaps the most extreme case so far. According to reports, there were 1,500 peaceful protesters on Berkeley’s campus before the rioters arrived. Their legitimate display of dissent wouldn’t have been enough to cancel Yiannopoulos’ event, but it would’ve gotten a clear message across: that Yiannopoulos’ message is in the minority. But using violence to prevent him from speaking at all demonstrates a kind of fear of his rhetoric. This is how campuses become echo chambers. The notion of the “safe space” expands until it encompasses entire universities, creating a bubble where professors, students and even guest speakers incessantly echo the same message. Without opposition, political opinions are made so extreme that they are in fact abstract, having little to no relation to reality.
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Violent response to Milo Yiannopoulos’ talk damaged UC Berkeley’s campus, an unfortunate effect of unpopular opinions hosted on college campuses.
Any opinion that appears outside of the strict borders of acceptable speech is quickly given some combination of the labels toxic, fascist or hateful. An innumerable amount of speakers avoid college campuses because of these so-called speech barriers. Robert Frost once said that “Education,” supposedly the primary goal of any university, “is the
targeted by the lecture that they were loved and accepted by their classmates. All that being said, the response to the Berkeley riots, namely President Trump’s tweet-threat that the university should lose federal funding, seems entirely unfounded. The violent protesters’ behavior was not sanctioned in any way by the university’s
“Without opposition, political opinions are made so extreme that they are in fact abstract...” ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” University of Tulsa students demonstrated this ability when they staged a silent protest at the arrival of Rosaria Butterfield, a woman who cited Christianity as being her primary motivation for converting to a heterosexual lifestyle. In that case, the students were not demanding that the speaker be barred from campus; they were simply present to remind students who might feel
administration; quite the opposite: the administration condemned the rioters, whose attacks undoubtedly damaged the university more than anything else. If Trump’s tweet is instead voicing his dislike for the peaceful protesters, he and Yiannopoulos will have to do just what they’ve been instructing everyone else to do: suck it up. Until then, the next four years are bound to consist of a cycle of left-wing tantrums and right-wing political threats.
The Collegian: 10
Variety
6 February 2017
The Collegian’s Grammy hopes and predictions: Who will win/who should win in each category
Music enthusiasts of The Collegian unite to predict which artists will win in their respective Grammy categories, and to reflect on who should have won instead.
ger pick for RotY than SotY. Mike Posner’s “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” has the alluring quality of only having one credited songwriter, Posner himself, but the song itself doesn’t have much going for it apart from that in my eyes. Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” has a shot, especially since credited songwriter Ed Sheeran won this award last year, but ultimately I think the simple lyrics and instrumentation will hold this one back in the face of more ambitious tracks. Speaking of ambitious tracks, we come to the two frontrunners: Lukas Graham’s “7 Years” and Beyoncé’s “Formation.” I would argue “Formation” deserves the award more because it does a much better job of defining the year, since its lyrical themes of black/ female empowerment were major talking points for most of 2016. However, “7 Years” is a more ambitious songwriting project, tying together different vignettes of a life into one coherent piece, and without the larger context it looks more impressive than “Formation,” which is why I think Lukas Graham will be leaving with the award. Should Win: Beyoncé, “Formation” Will Win: Lukas Graham, “7 Years”
James Whisenhunt Commentary Editor
Adam Lux Distribution Manager Ethan Veenker Student Writer
Record of the Year Adam: As much as I really enjoyed nominations like “7 years” and “Hello,” “Formation” is just too good for me to not say it deserves Record of the Year. Twenty One Pilots is a band that… confuses me and similarly I would be surprised and confused if their nomination “Stressed Out” came away with the win over Adele and Beyoncé. While I think “Work” gets a bit more hate than it deserves it certainly also doesn’t deserve a Grammy. Rihanna can do better and she knows it. “7 Years” by Lukas Graham was my guilty pleasure song this year but I just don’t think it’s a complex enough song to get Record of the Year. Adele’s “Hello” is an extraordinary, and obviously very popular song. However it’s difficult for me to not feel like Adele is giving us the same song over and over again. I want to see her grow as an artist. “Formation” gets my stamp but I’m pretty convinced the popularity of “Hello” will secure Adele the win. Should Win: Beyoncé, “Formation” Will Win: Adele, “Hello” James: The field is strong this year, but it’s no secret that this is a competition between “Formation” and “Hello.” Though “7 Years” and “Stressed Out” are both worthy of a nomination, I wouldn’t put either of them in the realm of possibility. I’m a bit confused by the “Work” nomination, perhaps because I wasn’t personally impressed by the vocal performances by Rihanna or Drake, but any other track put in its place wouldn’t have stood much of a chance either. Though I would personally put “Formation” above “Hello,” Adele’s track was a much bigger hit, going 7x Platinum in the US compared to Gold for Beyoncé’s, and might deserve the award more in terms of what song really defined the nomination cycle sonically. I have a theory, though, that whichever one of Beyoncé and Adele doesn’t win Album of the Year will win this award, so these could easily be flipped. Should Win: Beyoncé, “Formation” Will Win: Adele, “Hello” Ethan: “Record” of the Year typically refers to the quality of the production and engineering over the intricacy in songwriting, the latter quality usually being the focus of “Song” of the Year. Through this distinction, I’ll throw “Hello” out right away, being that that song is far more minimal in terms of production and focused on lyrical content. Twenty One Pilots have garnered far more attention than they deserve with their “Linkin-Park-but-not-metal” shtick, and “7 Years” and “Work” are songs that may seem catchy on the outside, but quickly lose their appeal and are, again, songs with rather uninteresting production. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Beyoncé’s “Formation,” but it at least had decent, non-minimalistic production that kept the song fresh for longer than 30 seconds. This isn’t to say that minimalism is a bad quality, but it’s a difficult one to exhibit technical prowess through. The other songs don’t even seem like they belong in this category, leaving Beyoncé the de facto winner. Additionally, if you perceive the Grammys as the giant popularity contest it tends to be, Yoncé wins again. Should Win: Beyoncé, “Formation” Will Win: Beyoncé, “Formation”
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
and provides listeners with a more mature Beyoncé. In a few years “25” is going to feel dated, yet nostalgic, whereas “Lemonade” is going still going to taste freshly squeezed. Despite this I feel the popularity of “25” is going to secure Adele the win. Should Win: Beyoncé, “Lemonade” Will Win: Adele, “25” James: The good part about this year’s field is that the Grammys can’t really mess up as badly as they did last year by giving Taylor Swift the award over Kendrick Lamar. Once again, this is the Beyoncé and Adele Show, and none of the other albums stand much of a chance. Though Sturgill Simpson’s “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” was an incredible record that managed to take country in an interesting direction and even make a cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom” work, it didn’t have the impact that “25” or “Lemonade” did and Simpson doesn’t have the name recognition usually required to get the award. Bieber and Drake both have a slim shot, but neither “Purpose” nor “Views” are strong enough albums to go against Adele or Bey. This brings us to the big question: “25” or “Lemonade?” Though I could see it going either way, “Lemonade” is much stronger as a full package. “25” has incredible tracks, but it also has a few missteps and doesn’t flow together or tell a story in the way that “Lemonade” does excellently. Should Win: Beyoncé, “Lemonade” Will Win: Beyoncé, “Lemonade” Ethan: Sturgill Simpson surprised me by being good and country at the same time, a feature that seems to typically be lost by chart-toppers. In that regard, it feels like Simpson brought country back to its roots whilst simultaneously launching it in an exciting new direction. His nomination is a wonderful surprise and marks a record that I would love to see win Album of the Year, but it’s clear that Adele and Beyoncé had bigger splashes this year. Whilst I have little
else to say about them compared to Simpson, I think Yoncé’s gonna swipe this award this year. Should Win: Sturgill Simpson, “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” Will Win: Beyoncé, “Lemonade”
Song of the Year Adam: If “Formation” doesn’t win Record of the Year it absolutely deserves Song of the Year. However I’m going to work from a hypothetical perspective where all of my “Should wins” actually do win, in which case a Beyoncé sweeping all the “of the Year” categories seems unfair. Specifically for that reason I’m saying Lukas Graham’s “7 Years” should win this category. Lukas Graham took an amazing pop song then added some soul to make “7 Years” and it’s amazing. I actually quite enjoy “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber but it just doesn’t feel quite Grammy quality to me. Mike Posner’s nomination “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” suffers similarly, while I quite enjoy it, the song seems to lack something to push it over the edge. I certainly can see the argument that, if it doesn’t win Record of the Year, “Hello” would be the obvious choice for Song of the Year. However I’m still wanting Adele to explore something new in her music and “Hello” just didn’t do that. If “Hello” does win Record of the Year, which I think it will, then I’m guessing that “Formation” takes Song of the Year. Should Win: Lukas Graham, “7 Years” Will Win: Beyoncé, “Formation” James: Song of the Year is distinct from Record of the Year in that their focuses are on the songwriting and the performance/ production, respectively. Since Adele’s “Hello” is made so powerful by her vocals and the minimalist production that places the emphasis on her voice, it’s a much stron-
Album of the Year Adam: I had to give it up to Sturgill Simpson. I’m not typically into country but “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” is amazing. Drake’s nomination, “Views” is bland. Justin Bieber’s “Purpose,” also falls near the bottom of the barrel in my opinion, although I like the new direction he’s taking. It’s hard to stand up to the prowess of Beyoncé and Adele. This is a battle between the two female superpowers. Ultimately my opinion sways in the favor of Bey. While Adele’s sheer vocal talent is extraordinary “25” lacks signs of her growing as an artist or trying anything new or interesting with her music. “Lemonade,” on the other hand, I feel does something new and interesting
Ethan: I not-so-fondly remember the days of nonstop “Hello” on the radio. Adele’s comeback was huge, and everyone hailed “Hello” as the triumphant new era. “Song” of the Year, as stated earlier, focuses more on songwriting aspects, with the award going solely to the songwriter(s) and performer(s) (rather than also including producers and sound engineers like Record of the Year). “Formation’s” appeal comes far more from its production than its lyricism, and the same with “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” though its production couldn’t be more bland. In terms of songwriting, “7 Years” and “Love Yourself” may have a genuine shot at this, but “Hello” simply appealed to a larger demographic and thus received far more attention. Should Win: Adele, “Hello” Will Win: Adele, “Hello”
Best New Artist Adam: Why are The Chainsmokers even nominated? I specifically remember having to listen to #selfie like 10,000 times in 2014. I did enjoy “Closer;” however, I’d hesitate to call them “best” or “new.” Ballerini and Morris both are successful in being unextraordinary. Anderson .Paak is an artist I plan to explore more in 2017. He has an amazing sound that’s simultaneously nostalgic and novel, but he is unfortunately eclipsed by one of the other artists nominated. I’m with James on this one — Chance the Rapper deserves to bring this one home and I have faith that he will. I mean, he has six other Grammy nominations this year. It’s hard to be a “Bester” New Artist than that. Should Win: Chance the Rapper Will Win: Chance the Rapper James: Instead of being a pessimist and saying The Chainsmokers will win because “Closer” was such a big hit, I’m going to say Chance the Rapper will win, but not necessarily because he deserves it the most (though I’d argue that he does anyway). First, the Grammys will pick Chance to show that they’re modern. They finally changed their rules this year so that artists releasing free online projects like Chance can finally be acknowledged, and giving him the award would go a long way to show that the changes were worth it. This is also a good year for a black man to win Best New Artist. Justin Bieber, Drake, and Kanye West have all said they won’t be attending the awards show due to its lack of representation for young artists and minority artists. Frank Ocean didn’t submit his album “Blond” for consideration this year with a similar motive. To fight against this, and to prove that the Grammys are still worth being taken seriously, I suspect we won’t be seeing another all-white Top 4 this year. Should Win: Chance the Rapper Will Win: Chance the Rapper Ethan: Grammy definitions of Best New Artist refer mostly to the artist that made more of a splash. I’m not one to vote for the underdog just to feel superior to everyone else, but it’s clear that Anderson .Paak made the smallest splash while retaining the freshest sound, managing to sound quite unlike the derivative pop present in the other nominees (excluding Chance the Rapper, though I just enjoyed .Paak more). That all being said, I reiterate that when it comes to the Grammys, it’s the splash that matters, and when your song garners over a billion hits on YouTube, you’re pretty much guaranteed a Grammy. This one will be going to The Chainsmokers. Should Win: Anderson .Paak Will Win: The Chainsmokers
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Beyonce’s newest album, Lemonade, is rumored to address the issue of Jay-Z’s infidelity.
Variety
6 February 2017
Weezer manages to appeal to fans without their sound becoming stagnant.
Best Rock Album Adam Panic! At the Disco, Blink-182 and Weezer are all nominated for Grammys? What year is it? This is going to be a hard category. I feel like three or four of these albums deserve a Grammy, but which one deserves it the most? I’ll start with “Magma” by Gojira. I seriously doubt this album will win. It’s certainly a good metal album; however, I wouldn’t call it an extraordinary metal album. Also, the Grammys aren’t known for being particularly favorable to metal bands. The next nominated album, the selfnamed “Weezer” (the band’s fourth selfnamed album), also known as “The White Album,” took me right back to the West Coast around the turn of the century. “Weezer” doesn’t sound like an album from 2016 and I’m perfectly okay with that. Cage the Elephant surprised me this year with “Tell Me I’m Pretty.” I personally feel that the tonal changes of their newest album compared to their older ones gives them a more mature sound. While I wouldn’t say it’s particularly better or worse than older albums, “Tell Me I’m Pretty” takes Cage the Elephant in a new direction that I’d love to see them explore further. “Death of a Bachelor” is good. It’s really really good. Like, I’m fairly convinced it’s actually physically impossible for a person to not like this album. The infusion of jazz motifs into a pop-punk album seems … idiot, but it works almost miraculously well. Fun fact: Panic! At the Disco started out as a cover band for next nominated artist: Blink-182. It’s been a great year for West Coast punk albums. “California” by Blink-182 is an album I was very nervous about when I first heard of its existence. Blink is one of my favorite bands of all time, and this was their first album without iconic vocalist Tom DeLonge. DeLonge’s voice wasn’t only the voice of his band, but became somewhat synonymous with West Coast punk in general. Would it even be Blink without him whining his way through the lyrics? The band proved my nerves to be unfounded. “California” was somehow able to capture the quintessential Blink-182 sound without DeLonge’s vocals and simultaneously able to push the band in a new direction that I’m excited to hear more of. In my opinion, this category is a battle between Panic! At the Disco, Blink-182 and Cage the Elephant. I loved Weezer’s newest album, but I feel like it falls just slightly behind. Picking a winner between these three albums is a nearly impossible task. It honestly just comes down to personal tastes. I personally would pick “California,” but I definitely have a strong bias towards Blink-182. However I’m fairly confident that Panic! At the Disco’s “Death of a Bachelor” is going to win, as it appeals to a wider audience than any of the other nominations.
Best Rap Song Adam Chance the Rapper is going to come away with this one, the question is for what song? Let’s just put away all the songs Chance was involved in and take a look at what’s left. Only two songs of the five nominated, “All the Way Up” by Fat Joe and Remy Ma, and “Hotline Bling” by Drake, don’t include my boi Chance. “All the Way Up” certainly is a good song, but I’m a bit confused about why it’s nominated. Don’t get me wrong, I got hyped up every time it came on, but it’s not a song I really want to hear more than once a weekend. The song itself doesn’t seem to expect anyone to listen to it very closely, considering how poorly it was mastered. While the beat sounds nice, all the voices on the song sound like they were recorded with the mic from Apple earpods. I legitimately thought something was wrong with my headphones the first time I listened to it.
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Moving on to Drake’s nomination. Wait, didn’t “Hotline Bling” come out in 2015? Yes, yes it did, but it was nominated this year. Honestly, there’s not a whole lot to say. It’s a good song but it never really left me wanting to hear it again. I’ve heard covers of it that blew me away, but Drake’s version is … bland, too easy to digest. It’s paradoxically a song that’s completely forgettable and yet somehow gets stuck in my head way too easily. I won’t say much about “Famous,” because although I really like this song, both Kanye and Chance both have better songs that are nominated. The Sister Nancy sample is the best part. “No Problem” did the impossible— this song made me like Lil Wayne. This is the song that got me the most hyped up this year. I got excited every time it came on the radio or my Spotify, even if I had just heard it a few minutes ago. It’s seemingly impossible to not nod your head or tap your foot when this song is on. It’s catchy, punchy, well written, and well produced. What more can listeners ask for? I love this song, and that’s why it’s so hard to say this isn’t my pick for the Grammy. Any other year it would have won. That’s ok because MY BOIIII CHANCE still deserves to snatch that Grammy, but instead of for “No Problem” it’s going to be for “Ultralight Beam.” Whether you love or hate old Kanye, new Kanye, or any Kanye, you have to admit “Ultralight Beam” is beautiful, masterful and instantly iconic. The beat is powerful, the vocals are aweinspiring, Chance’s verse is effortless and brilliant, and the last 20 seconds of the song give me chills everytime I listen to it. As far as who WILL win goes, I’m not sure. I could see it going so many ways. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised or upset if “No Problem” took it home over “Ultralight Beam.” A “Famous” win would surprise, but not upset me. If Chance the Rapper doesn’t take home a statue for one of his 3 NOMINATED SONGS in this category I will be livid. Best Rock Song Ethan Having Radiohead and David Bowie nominated for the same Grammy is a hairpulling experience. It’s fair to say through this distinction alone that the Grammy will be going to one of these artists for sure, though we should take a moment to discuss all the nominees. Firstly, “Blackstar.” This song and its accompanying video are haunting. Between the overwhelming ambiance and distorted
vocals, it’s one of Bowie’s most horrifying songs to date. Given its heavy themes of death and Bowie’s own death shortly after the release of the album, it’s only fitting that this song gives me the heebie-jeebies. The short bridge in the middle of the song where the clouds part and the instrumentation lightens up a bit helps to make the tenminute track’s length forgivable, given that the song is a journey from beginning to end. And, while it wasn’t my favorite nominated song, it’s a shoo-in for this Grammy due almost solely to David Bowie’s unfortunate death, may he rest in peace. Radiohead’s “Burn the Witch” marked the comeback I was most excited to see this year. It’s considerably shorter than “Blackstar” at four minutes, and though the production carries the same somber theme as Bowie’s track, it’s not as overwhelming in this song. Additionally, more instruments seem to be present, and it’s ultimately just a more interesting song to listen to. While it isn’t as entrancing of a journey as “Blackstar” is, “Burn the Witch” was one of my favorite tracks this year and I’m really hoping this one snags the Grammy. As far as rock songs go, Metallica’s “Hardwired” goes hardest in this list. There’s not much to say about this one; the sound is a little dated. Modern rock is far softer and more thoughtful than anything Metallica has put out, and whether you appreciate that shift or not, it can’t be denied that Metallica is a bit of a relic. They had a nice comeback, but they’re not likely to stay relevant for very long. Twenty One Pilots, otherwise known as the Poppy Limp Bizkit Wannabe Band, released “Heathens” this past year, a mediocre song that was gracefully Grammy-nominated from the soundtrack to one of the worst movies of the year. The fact that they’re in the running against Radiohead and David Bowie drops my respect for the category immensely. Finally, Highly Suspect’s “My Name is Human” marks the most personally unique song here due solely to the fact that I’ve heard it performed live. It’s a decent rock song in its own right. It’s the heaviest nominee save for Metallica’s track, but just like that song it’s uninventive and a little bland. It doesn’t quite stand a chance against Radiohead or Bowie, but it’s refreshing to see an actual rock song nominated here. Best Alternative Music Album Ethan It’s weird to see both Iggy Pop and David Bowie back in a lineup for the Grammys in 2017. It is, however, also nice to see them back, being that they’re helping to give the term “alternative music” a little decency again. Bon Iver’s “22, A Million” was one of my favorite releases of 2016. I was a little hasty in comparing it to Radiohead’s “Ok Computer” in the Collegian article I wrote on it, but the parallels are still there. I don’t think it’s out-there to presume that Justin Vernon was heavily inspired by the kind of glitchrock that Radiohead sort-of started (or at least made popular) with that album. Given this connection, it’s nice to see Bon Iver and Radiohead at the Grammys simultaneously. I imagine them getting together and laughing heartily over the records they’ve made this year and in past years, maybe they’ll exchange phone numbers or Thom Yorke could help Vernon get on South Park. I digress, though, back to my love of “22, A Million” and how it’s easily the most “alternative” album on this list. The only album whose nomination I’m truly disappointed in is PJ Harvey’s “The Hope Six Demolition Project”. Listening to it makes me beg the question, “alternative to what?” Radiohead had a dramatically emotional album this year, and while they’ve always had sad music, “A Moon Shaped Pool” is Modest-Mouse levels of depression in music. Beyond that, the production
David Bowie’s Grammy-nominated final album came out only a few days before his death.
The Collegian: 11 of the album reflects this amazingly, creating swirling oceans of ambient effects and restrained instrumentation. Similarly, David Bowie’s “Blackstar”, an album almost entirely about the man’s impending death, is perforated with dark ambience. “Blackstar” and “Lazarus” are the standout tracks for eclectic instrumentation doing their damndest to portray the feelings associated with death, most of which aren’t pretty. I don’t have much to say about Iggy Pop, but at least “Post Pop Depression” featured instrumentation that was more “alternative” than PJ Harvey’s album, which, while seems to be a decent album in and of itself, isn’t alternative to much else than your Spotify Playlist. So, I must reiterate that I feel “22, A Million” is the most experimental, most “alternative” release on this nomination list. It’s fresh, interesting, and completely different than anything you hear from the other nominees. Does this make it the best? Not inherently. Does it make it the most “alternative”, by the very definition of “alternative”? Yeah, yeah I think it does. And while I wish I could triumphantly leave on this note, I’m expecting the Grammy to go to David Bowie. I don’t want to say it’s just because he passed away, but that could certainly be a factor that knocks it a few notches above the other nominees. Best Dance Recording Ethan Can we please drop the “drop”? I’m looking here at a list of nominated songs for the 2017 Grammys and one of them actually has a drop. If I wanted to be reminded of middle school, I’d dig up my old yearbooks or listen to Linkin Park. While we’re on the subject of dance music pitfalls, shouldn’t we also address the idea that dance tracks don’t have to be uninventive pieces of music whose only purpose serves as background club music? There’s two types of song in this category. First we should deal with the blander tracks. Bob Moses’ “Tearing Me Up”, Riton’s “Rinse & Repeat” (feat. Kah-Lo), and Sofi Tukker’s “Drinkee”. Perhaps it’s a little unfair to lump the third song into this category, being that though it’s repetitive and unchanging, it is at least of greater musical merit than the other two. Additionally, it’s impressive for a band to go straight to a Grammy nomination from their debut EP. It is, though, repetitive and unchanging. Similar to “Tearing Me Up” and “Rinse & Repeat”, songs I can hardly gather memories of. Good songs to dance to? Maybe, particularly the latter. Interesting songs, decent production, enticing vocal performances, the slightest inkling of an interest to explore the rest of the artist’s discography? Well, no. Not at all. There are, though, two songs in here that don’t stray into the unmemorable. They’re The Chainsmokers’ “Don’t Let Me Down” (feat. Daya) and Flume’s “Never Be Like You” (feat. Kai). They occupy the second type of song in this category, being that they are, at the very least, marginally memorable. As much as it pains me to say it, The Chainsmokers will probably snag this one, seeing as how out-of-touch the Grammys tends to be and, well, The Chainsmokers put a drop in their song. It’s a perfect recipe for a Grammy: music that sounds like it would have been good five years ago and an awarding committee who’re just now finding out what music was like five years ago. As for Flume, “Never Be Like You” is actually quite good. It has genuinely interesting production, a wonderful beat that sounds like it required a knowledge beyond an iPad’s Garageband app to create, and a chorus that changes the pace and feel of the song without having to drop it. I’m jaded, though, and I can’t expect the better song here to win, but rather the safer one.
See “Grammys” on pg. 12
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
The Collegian: 12
Grammys, continued from page 11 Best Rap Album James It’s time for two unfortunate truths, and the first is that the category overall looks fairly weak. DJ Khaled’s “Major Key” is a fun project, despite a couple weak tracks, but doesn’t manage to bring itself together in a way that necessitates the name “album” over a series of singles. Kanye West’s “The Life of Pablo” has definitely grown on me throughout the year, but it drags and weighs itself down with unnecessary tracks, leaving listeners wading through the hour-plus album to find gems like “Real Friends” and “Facts” and “No More Parties in LA.” ScHoolboy Q’s “Blank Face LP” has similar problems, with 17 tracks and a harsh, explicit lyricism that works well for the album but that the Grammys don’t go for unless you’re Eminem. De La Soul’s “And the Anonymous Nobody” is a solid album that deserves the nomination, but the group isn’t on the radar enough to get more than a nod. Chance the Rapper has a shot at the award with “Coloring Book,” a fairly unique sound and the most thematically solid album nominated this year, but he may also suffer from a lack of an established name despite his number of nominations. This brings me to the second unfortunate truth: there’s almost no chance that anyone other than Drake will win this award. Despite “Views” feeling like it went on for about five too many tracks and Drake’s “it’s lonely at the top” theme showing its full depth by the time listeners are a quarter of the way through, the album was huge and it’s an incredibly safe pick. I also ascribe to a general rule that I expect any album nominated for Album of the Year to win in its own category.
Variety Best Americana Album James I have to admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for The Avett Brothers. Unfortunately, their last three or four albums have only gone further from their energetic grassroots instrumentation and clever wordplay, and their new record “True Sadness” is no exception. A strange Frankenstein mix of electric and acoustic instrumentation and a few dud tracks really hampers this album. It may have have a good chance at the award, though, since it’s the most accessible album nominated this year. The other album that has a good chance at the award is “The Cedar Creek Sessions,” a mix of old and new content recorded in 2014 by country music legend Kris Kristofferson. The 80-year-old singer-songwriter has been making music for decades, and his new album proves that he can stand the test of time. Other albums nominated for this category are The Time Jumpers’ “Kid Sister,” a fun big-band-influenced effort that suffers from a few tracks that don’t distinguish themselves, and singer-songwriter Lori McKenna’s “The Bird and the Rifle,” a solid album that doesn’t overstay its welcome like “Kid Sister” but doesn’t go further than a compilation of sad guitar ballads despite some excellent lyricism. The last nominee, William Bell’s “This is Where I Live,” may not be a favorite to take the award in my eyes, but it’s the most engaging album in the category. The soul and blues influence and varied instrumentation on this record goes a long way to distinguish itself from the rest of the field, and it definitely warrants a listen before other records in this category. Unfortunately, though he’s just three years younger than Kristofferson, he never quite reached the same level of fame. Best Children’s Album James Is there any award more coveted than Best Children’s Album? The category was created in 2012 and has quickly become
a national point of interest for parents and music lovers alike. This year’s lineup is an interesting mix, too. There are three artists returning to the competition: the hip hop outfit Secret Agent 23 Skidoo for “Infinity Plus One” and the 50s-inspired rock group Brady Rymer & The Little Band that Could for “Press Play,” as well as 2013 Grammy winners The Okee Dokee Brothers for their western-influenced “Saddle Up.” New to the field are Frances England, an indie/folk singer-songwriter, with her travel-themed album “Explorer of the World,” and Recess Monkey for their album “Novelties.” Brady Rymer, Recess Monkey and The Okee Dokee Brothers would all be very safe picks. They all sound like what you would expect kids to listen to: simple lyrics and fairly uninteresting musical content. They’re all fun to listen to a couple times,
6 February 2017 but don’t provide much depth. Frances England’s “Explorer of the World” and Secret Agent 23 Skidoo’s “Infinity Plus One” gave me something I didn’t expect going into this category. Both of these albums were as lyrically engaging as one can reasonably expect from a children’s album and surprisingly enjoyable listens. “Explorer of the World” manages to bring its strong theme into every track and build a cohesive album that feels like an adventure. “Infinity Plus One” manages to bring elements of hip hop, jazz, funk and soul into an album that’s more engaging and complex to listen to than some of the AotY nominations this year. I’ll be rooting for Secret Agent 23 Skidoo next Sunday, but I suspect that one of the more traditional albums will walk away with it.
courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Skidoo’s experimentation deserves a Grammy, but will probably be passed over for more traditional options.
Following disappointing TU Chamber Music wows opener, yMusic astounds at Heckman competition
The yMusic ensemble’s talent outweighed its unimpressive openers and the long drive to its concert hall. Matt Magerkurth Student Writer
Sometimes, you’ve just got to treat yourself. Such was my mindset last Friday as I drove four hours to see a concert, of all things. yMusic, one of the dominant young forces in new classical music, adopts an indie-rock approach to their commissions, but their virtuosity and nuance as musicians is only heightened by their fresh approach. Their concert appearances outside of their home in NYC are limited, so I knew I had to pounce on this concert, and I did just that. The hall was a charmed, glowing old relic; complete with gussied-up bluehairs volunteering as ushers and a crystalline chandelier hanging above the balcony seats. Ornate streams of maroon and gold paint patterned the tattered proscenium arch, and beneath, to my shock, was seated a full orchestra, warming up. As it happens, the sleepy town of Salina is prodded awake for a few days each winter for the Kansas Wesleyan University International Music Festival, although the “International” seems like an overstatement to the outside observer. At any rate, the orchestra stumbled through some lukewarm Haydn and Mozart while I questioned every part of my trip. What was I THINKING coming here? I wondered silently from my seat, as slumping cellists with rolled sleeves bumbled through some scales and the horns repeatedly cracked on the high notes. I began to question if yMusic was even here, let alone whether they were going to play. But as the botched finale of the Mozart rang out and the orchestra filed offstage, on came the faces I knew only from videos, dressed to the nines and ready to play all the way up to the elevens. It always amazes me how casually The Pros stroll on stage, about to begin a set, but stroll they did, as the ensemble barely sat down by the time that the blazing riff of Son Lux’s “Beautiful Mechanical” bounced crisply out of Gabriel Cabezas’ cello. The concert was off to the races, and I grooved with ecstatic delight. Immediately apparent was the group’s uncommon chemistry. “We formed this group because we like playing with each other, not because the instrumental combination makes any sense whatsoever,” quipped the charismatic violist Nadia Sirota, before the band eased into the
sparkling “Bladed Stance” by the Brazilian Marcos Balter. The six instrumental timbres flow easily from and through each other, as if electronic, as the work tiptoes forward, phrase by phrase. yMusic has worked in the last five years not to be genre-defying, but genretranscending, and one of their cornerstone pieces is Andrew Norman’s monstrous and enigmatic “Music in Circles.” The simple throbbing and whistling sounds of an airconditioner spun into ten experiential minutes, “Music in Circles” is one of those pieces that comes around and changes the game. The piece is told from the viola’s perspective, offering some stratospheric notes with scored air and resonance from the wind instruments before spiraling out and landing on some low ricochet pitches. As if discovering it for the first time, Sirota dawdles through this first taste of rhythm, dipping a toe in before taking the full, incredible plunge and dragging the rest in with her. The splash unfolds in slow motion, with an inexhaustible crescendo that lasts minutes, broken bow hairs flying, and aerobic strain evident on the faces of the winds. At last, it explodes into wild streaks of light and color, and gently simmers down, as the viola seems to learn what the piece is about. Moving further and further from center, Sirota places every note of her final, minutes-long phrase with absolute precision and delicacy to reveal that we have ended where we began. Music; in Circles. To be honest, I wasn’t good for much else; after headbanging in the raucous splendor and bathing in the richly colored delight of the climax, I was left aquiver. The final five pieces contained four brandnew works (two more by Son Lux, one by Caroline Shaw, and another by Chris Thile), which is a part of the splendid nature of this ensemble: everything they have ever done has been written exactly for them, and because of that they are uncommonly close, as people, as performers, but also as an unstoppable force. After the concert, I stood in line with my fellow Midwesterners, but still alone, head still racing, heart still in knots. I trudged towards the merch table, where these gods from the pantheon of music had parked their earthly presence, and I bought a CD, desperately hoping to strike up a conversation and grab a beer, but too stuttery to communicate. I sheepishly thanked them and reeled at the sheer majesty I had just witnessed. Rest assured that yMusic is doing good work for the world, and with times as dark as they are, being reminded of what it is to be a human is a necessity.
Three small ensembles competed in the Heckman Competition last Monday night, each performing a uniquely impressive piece. Hannah Kloppenburg Editor-In-Chief
On Monday night, students from the TU School of Music competed in the Heckman Award Competition. The students’ entries were presented in the form of a concert that was free and open to the public. The competition was held in the cozy confines of Meinig Recital Hall rather than in the spacious Gussman Auditorium. This was ideal for me because it meant that I had a front-row seat for the concert — literally, I was about five feet away from the performers, which was really cool. The concert consisted of three small ensembles, each of which performed all or part of a single piece. The night began with Beethoven. A string quartet consisting of Corbin Bodley (violin), Megan Kepley (violin), Dominique Barnes (viola) and Matthew Magerkurth (cello) performed the second movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7, Op. 59 No 1. This performance may have been my favorite of the night simply because the group exuded a tangible energy. They were nearly flawless — even from my nearby vantage point, I couldn’t catch a single mistake. The piece began with a call-and-response between each of the four instrumentalists which then echoed throughout the performance. It oscillated between intense interludes, which the quartet emphasized with strong, almost harsh bow strokes, and a smooth, flowing chorus. The structure of it was really interesting — much of the piece was intense, complex and almost inspired a sense of anxiety, but it would always return to that chorus and for a few short seconds, all the players lapsed into the same soothing harmony. The second ensemble continued the Beethoven trend with the first two movements of Piano Trio No. 4, Op. 7 No. 1. Ellen Dauk (violin) and Jeremiah Neely (cello) complemented pianist Drew Crane wonderfully. The string players were the focus of the first movement, which was spirited but smooth and seemed like a conversation between violin and cello. I loved the composition of this piece — It was full of lovely cascading melodies, of which I, personally, am a huge fan. Dauk and Neely obviously worked well together, each keeping a careful eye out for the other’s cue. Every once in awhile, the strings would quiet down, allowing a deli-
cate piano verse to emerge. The only criticism I have of this piece is that from where I sat, I could hardly hear the piano — I’m not sure whether that was a function of the movement itself, my seat or the room’s acoustics. The second movement was much slower, darker and more eerie than the first. The piano was given a more obvious role in this movement — rather than complementing the strings, it was evenly woven amongst them. Not to use a cheesy metaphor, but the piece sounded like what fog looks like. It crept in, built up to several complex, forceful peaks throughout the movement, and exited with the same fog-like feeling. The third ensemble parted from tradition in a few ways. Breaking from the Beethoven trend, Jacob Barber (violin), Amber Baxter (clarinet) and Meg Mobley (piano) performed all four movements of Darius Milhaud’s Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano. Each of the four movements was brief and energetic, moving the piece right along. I particularly liked this piece because of the inclusion of the clarinet — I haven’t heard many small ensembles that incorporate the clarinet as a major component, but it seemed very compatible with the violin. The resulting sound was lovely and definitely stood out from the other pieces. The piece was also unique in that it was much brighter and more upbeat than the previous ones. The first and third movements reminded me of music that might play in the background of a video game battle or a jousting event or some other sort of adventure. They mostly consisted of melodies tossed back and forth between Baxter and Barber. The second movement was much calmer and shyer, bringing the piano closer to the forefront. It reminded me of bubbling water. The fourth movement stood in stark contrast to the other three — it was much more dramatic and contained more minor chords than the rest of the piece put together. Professor Diane Bucchianeri, coordinator of the competition, reported that the second ensemble (Ellen Dauk, Jeremiah Neely and Drew Crane) won the competition and an accompanying cash prize of $6000. As a result, they will perform outreach concerts sponsored by Chamber Music Tulsa this spring, and will work as interns at the TU Chamber Music Camp for Middle and High School Students in June. The pieces performed at the Heckmann Competition Concert were wonderful choices that showcased the musicians’ abilities, and the second ensemble’s win was welldeserved. In all, the concert made for an enjoyable Monday evening and the chance to become familiar with some of the talent right here on TU’s campus.
6 February 2017
Variety
The Collegian: 13
“Pink Season” shows that comedy music is real music
The newest album from Pink Guy raises the question: What’s the line, if it exists, between “real” music and comedy music? Ethan Veenker Student Writer
Thirty-five songs. Thirty-five songs on Pink Guy’s latest album/mixtape, “Pink Season” (though technically one or two are skits). This will be relevant in a moment. In the meantime, we should discuss Pink Guy, an alias of George Miller a.k.a. Filthy Frank or Joji. Filthy Frank as a YouTube persona is known chiefly for his intentionally offensive, absurdist content. Boasting over 4.2 million subscribers, Miller wields a largeyet-niche part of the internet. The Filthy Frank channel (TVFilthyFrank) is notorious for being ridiculously offensive, but in some regards Miller uses it as a way to genuinely speak out on topics through satire. My personal favorite video is one where the character discusses the idea of “being born in the wrong generation” because music was “just so much better” a few decades ago. Systematically and hilariously, Miller tears this idea apart. More often than not, however, his videos consist of absurd or grotesque situations, like decking out a new ride for a wheelchair-bound patient named “Wheelz” or baking and eating a hair-filled cake. I could gush about his channel all day but it’s best to shift the focus to Pink Guy, yet another character from the mind of Miller. In 2014, Pink Guy released a short, selftitled mixtape through Bandcamp (stylized as “PINK GUY”). The low-budget project consisted of little more than cheap production, cheaper jokes, and ukulele covers of NWA songs — and it was amazing. A cult hit amongst his already niche market, the album was lifted on a pedestal and the songs
soon became classics amongst the fanbase, particularly one aptly titled “Kill Yourself.” It served as a conduit for Miller to bring his musical art to a larger audience, something that began paving the way for a much larger discussion. In early 2017, Pink Guy was back with “Pink Season,” his most objectively offensive release to date. It’s hard to top songs about sexual infatuation with Dora the Explorer (“Dora the Explora”) or genuine directions to a dog-eating festival in China (“Dog Festival Directions”). These may sound completely undesirable, but between the absolutely hilarious bars and the aboveaverage production/instrumentation, it’s a genuinely good album filled with vulgaryet-amazing tracks. “STFU,” for example, is one of my favorite tracks on the album
first three songs sum the album up so well. “Hot Nickel Ball on a Pussy” leads us into the record with a confusing and uncomfortable song about vaginas. The production is sparse and Pink Guy’s voice is pulled back into a shrill hiss. An observation from my roommate helped me realize that this song’s placement could be intentional, serving only to confuse those who have no idea what this album is or why it’s topping the iTunes charts. Beyond that song is the absolute banger of a track “Are You Serious,” which is genuinely one of the best hip hop songs I’ve heard this year — it goes hard. After that is the satirical “White is Right” which, boasting a beat that includes a banjo, needs no description. One song in particular, “Rice Balls,” raises an interesting point. It’s worth not-
“There’s art that can make me cry, there’s art that can make me tired, there’s art that can put me in a good mood and thank God there’s art that can make me laugh.”
due to its seamless transitions from the physical to the electronic and back again. If you found “PINK GUY” to be useful only for cheap laughs, “Pink Season” is worth a listen for even cheaper laughs and some genuinely good music. There’s so many things about this album and the situations regarding its release that I love. I love how when I downloaded it from iTunes that every single track was marked “explicit.” I love how, due to Miller’s large audience, the album shot to the top of iTunes charts in numerous countries the day it dropped. I love how you can’t find it on Spotify with a specific search anymore, but instead have to dig through playlists or find it through some other method, raising questions as to whether Spotify purposefully hid the unclean content. I love how the
ing that Miller has another musical project titled “Joji.” Only a dusty Soundcloud and a Bandcamp with five songs marks the extent of this project, but it depicts Miller on a non-satirical, non-offensive, “serious” note. The outro to “Rice Balls” is a short, skitlike signoff where Miller mocks fans that berate him to make “Joji music” and “real music.” His response is simple and reasonable: “Bro, I didn’t even know real and fake music existed. I mean, I think it’s, like, your fault for putting that shit into categories. Like, music is music.” And so we reach the main point of contention. Miller essentially wrapped the argument up for me. Artists like The Lonely Island, “Weird Al” Yankovic and even Pink Guy are all just that: artists. The subtlety and quality of that art is subjective — all art truly is —
but for those who take a look at acts like these and dismiss them as “not music,” well, they’re just as ignorant as kids who genuinely believe they were born in the wrong generation because “Pink Floyd is just so much better than mainstream trash.” It’s time to grow up; it’s time to acknowledge that even if it’s meant to make you laugh it can still be art. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, “Pink Season” is a thirty-five-track monster that clocks in at well over an hour. It’s abundantly clear that Miller put a lot of heart and effort into this. Even if one of the songs is the phrase “I like sex” repeated in Japanese over and over again, it’s still content that an artist is putting out there. It’s a project he’s worked hard on, a project he’s probably devoted over a year to, a project that he uses to make genuine points even if just under several layers of satire. There’s art that can make me cry, there’s art that can make me tired, there’s art that can put me in a good mood, and thank God there’s art that can make me laugh. Pink Guy is different. He’s offensive and vulgar and satirical and talented and hilarious. Miller has created through him an amazing album. Maybe you won’t find it funny, maybe you won’t find the lyrics clever or the instrumentation technically impressive. That’s all okay, you’re welcome to form that opinion and keep it for your whole damn life, but when you start to tear the album down as objectively non-art, you’re overstepping your boundaries. Additionally, berating a man who works tirelessly to supply you with essentially free content about making “real” music as opposed to whatever he’s working on is entirely dehumanizing. Comedy music is real music, plain and simple. It’s instrumentation set to a melody, so at its base, literal definition, it’s music. At the end of the day, it’s up to the artist to produce whatever the hell he wants, and if George Miller wants to record a song called “Meme Machine” under the alias of Pink Guy, then by God let him do it.
“Expressions” brings Tulsa together for Black History Month Various acts, from diabolo yo-yoing to singing, aimed to celebrate African-Americans and their history. Michaela Flonard News Editor Last Friday, the Association of Black Collegians and SA held the first ever Expressions: City-Wide Black History Talent Show, a competition aiming to celebrate Black History month through performance. Fifteen acts performed, with a variety of talents ranging from salsa dancing to spoken word. Because of technical difficulties with the video for the first act, Marjorie Sheaff kicked off the night with “Summertime,” an aria by George Gershwin for the opera Porgy and Bess. With the style of singing, it was difficult to hear the words. Her voice, however, was beautiful and a peaceful way to start off the night. Evan Ng performed next, using diabolos, a type of juggling prop, with occasional dances and a video. The performance was split into two parts: act one chronicled the Pan-African root culture and act two chronicled more recent African-American historical events. Spiritual Pan-African music played in the background as Ng did various tricks with his diabolos, and a slideshow went through images of Africans in native garb. In between the acts, a brief message about the history of Africans and AfricanAmericans flashed on the screen. In act two, the stage went dark, and Ng used LED diabolos in his performance, which was accompanied by Common’s song “Glory.” This setup made the tricks on the diabolo even more amazing in their height and Ng’s ability to catch them, as they stood out in the dark. Ng ended the performance on a high note, with a message proclaiming the achievements of African-Americans. “Miss Celie’s Blues,” composed for the movie “The Color Purple,” was performed next by Chyna Evans. In the movie, the song is meant to help Celie remember her worth and demonstrate the love the singer had for Celie. Evans made her body part of the performance, putting attitude into her words to emphasize the message. In “Talking to You from the Grave,” Tim Butler revived Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for what he called an “original dramatic poetic sermonette.” Butler combined words Dr. King had said with his own ideas about the reverend’s view on current topics. Butler referenced several topics, including the recent Terrance Crutcher shooting, talking as if he were King looking down from the heavens. The piece built from a relatively calm lecture to a loud, impassioned cry to finish the work he had dedicated his life to. Throughout the piece, Butler repeated the
phrase “from the grave,” as if to remind the audience they were being watched by history. As it was a sermonette, the piece did make many references to the Lord, and how the church and love were the solution to the issues of today. Maddy and Darcy performed Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.” This piece was slower and demanded that if the listener wanted a “do right woman” then he had to be a “do right man.” The two switched off parts of the song, singing the chorus as a duet. Playing three instruments and also singing was Harlan Barnes, aka Solo Touch. Barnes started off the performance with the instrumental horn, then switched to the electric guitar and bass guitar, before ending with a light bit of singing and the instrumental horn. He encouraged the audience to stand and clap to his piece, in which light smooth jazz music played as a background to his live performance. His energy motivated the audience to sway and clap. With acoustic guitars, Garrett and Joshua performed a mashup of songs from iconic black artists and groups. These songs included “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson, “Isn’t She Lovely” by Stevie Wonder and “All of Me” by John Legend. They switched off duties singing as they switched in between songs, moving through moods smoothly. The OU Gospel Choir performed a medley of negro spirituals in black and red outfits. The performance started off with a solo of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” before the rest of the choir joined in . Each member got their body involved in the performance, transporting the audience to an impassioned Sunday morning. At one part of the song, each of the three voices sang a piece of the song, which highlighted the ability of the choir. The spoken word piece “I’m not giving my black back” by Jewel Diamond Taylor, performed by Amya Jamison, was a touching acceptance and embrace of blackness. The piece started off with an unapologetic embrace of the poet’s stereotypically black features, like her “greens” or her “grits.” The poem often referenced black heroes and icons, in a refusal to give them up. Perhaps the audience’s most loved line of the poem, however, was during its celebration of black beauty, in which Jamison said, “I love putting lotion on my ashy legs.” The poem also celebrated the achievements of African-Americans and Africans in general, proving a celebration and reminder. The Tulsa Touch team danced a type of salsa that incorporated elements of AfroCuban and Afro-Caribbean dances. The group of four, while seeming slightly out of sync, lit up the stage with bright costumes and twisting hips and legs. Queen Jamia came to the event with her original piece, “Jesus Help Me,” in which she pleaded with Jesus to help her through-
out her struggle in life. She sang and played guitar for the performance, starting off slow and quiet and ending with a more energetic, loud cry for the Lord’s help. Miko the Artist started off her spoken word piece, “do you know you,” with singing about how society was trying to kill the black race. Her piece emphasized the achievements and history of the African race, beginning with them being the cradle of civilization. By knowing one’s history, her poem argued, one can cause change. She ended the poem with the short song she’d started with. The band (JC)^2 brought Bruno Mars’s “Locked Out of Heaven” to the audience. Composed of two guitars, a brass instrument, drums and a singer, the band’s cover was lively. The use of the trumpet in the song provided an interesting twist, with a solo that boasted of skill; however the singing seemed a bit too high-pitched to cover Mars’ work. Gabriel Jones ended the night by dancing to “Where You From,” by Missy Elliott, in which he popped and locked across the stage. At times his limbs seemed static, jumping from one position to another, while at others, they flowed smoothly as if he were made of jello. He attempted to keep the au-
dience engaged and excited in the act, which didn’t prove too difficult, as the song caused many to reminisce, cheering loudly at complicated moves. While the judges decided the winners, KIDD, a beatboxer, entertained the audience. Starting off with techno beats that were reminiscent of electro dance clubs, he then transitioned to Ginuwine’s “Pony,” making the background/synth noises with his voice and singing as well. His singing and beatboxing skills both proved good, much to the delight of the audience. After his short performance, the audience and kids from the Tulsa Dream Project were invited to the stage for a dance competition. The music proved to be hits that had inspired dance crazes like the nae nae, and the dancers amazed the audience, some doing backflips and splits onstage. At the end of the night, President Clancy announced the winners, himself a judge, along with his wife, Paula, and a few others Tim Butler was awarded third place, Amya Jamison second, and Queen Jamia, first. The event, which brought various parts of the Tulsa community together, will hopefully be repeated in the future as a entertaining but educational way to start off Black History Month.
photo by Michaela Flonard
Tim Butler channeled Dr. King to relate current topics with the legend’s own fight for equality.
6 February 2017
The State-Run Media
the
State-Run media Too provocative for the back page
Heartwarming! Iranian student given extended family vacation President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration gave a TU student an extended excused absence from school. Sam Beckmann Volunteer border guard In an unexpected twist, a University of Tulsa student was granted an extended vacation by executive order of the Trump administration. Amir Rahbar was returning from visiting family in Iran when he was stopped by US officers at the airport. After looking over his documentation, the officials told Amir that he would have to return to Iran. “It was great!” Amir told the State-Run via an encrypted call. “They paid for the flight back and everything. I was all like, ‘Man, I’ll have to get back into this school thing’, but then I got another week off with my family. Who knows, if Trump really is as crazy as people say, I may even get
to stay here another week!” In an official response, the University of Tulsa clarified that they would still be charging tuition to students not in the country. “If people can’t be bothered to get up out of their beds, cross international borders, and find a seat to their 8 AM on time, that’s not our problem.” President Clancy stated in the announcement. “They should have thought about that before trying to get a higher education.” Before the interview ended, Amir let us know that if the executive order ever inconvenienced him in the slightest way, his feelings on it would immediately turn to utter disgust. “It’s really an all or nothing thing, my feelings towards laws and regulations is just that whatever makes me happiest in this particular instance should be the law of the land.” In response to the executive order, the State-Run staff is packing up for an extended stay at a beach resort in some foreign destination. If there’s no newspaper next week, know that we succeeded.
Clancy halts immigration from St. Louis
graphic by Elias Brinkman
St. Louisians are unable to both return to friends in Tulsa and escape family in St. Louis.
TU President Gerard Clancy has banned all St. Louisian students, even legal Tulsa residents, from attending TU. Adam Lux St. Louisian refugee TU’s new Commander-inChief took a strong stance against President Trump’s executive order banning immigrants from certain countries and all refugees. On January 29, Dr. Clancy sent out a school-wide email stating that “we stand together as one family, re-
spectful, united and strong.” Despite his apparent disapproval of Trump’s actions, it seems that Clancy has taken a page out of Trump’s book. On January 30, administration sent out another school-wide email stating “By executive order of President Clancy, all admissions of students from the greater St. Louis area will stop immediately.” Campus plunged into chaos over the next few days. Many of the students from St. Louis went into hiding out of fear of being deported. Plans to visit family and friends back in the Lou were canceled. Dr. Theodore McCart of the law department was finally able to convince Clancy to let students
currently in transit from St. Louis to Tulsa be allowed back on campus. The State-Run Media was able to secure a brief interview with President Clancy. When asked what triggered the ban, Clancy responded, “It’s just like, people from St. Louis are so annoying. All they talk about is their dumb pizza or ask what high school each other went to and then laugh at some joke nobody else understands.” This reporter admires the bravery of President Clancy to tell it like it is. St. Louis is sending droves of their people down I-44. And while some of them I assume are good people, there are a lot of bad hombres in the bunch.
already miss the halcyon days of logging onto Facebook and scrolling past low-resolution vacation photos and videos of video games. “I used to log onto Facebook and feel ‘Haha’ or at the very least ‘Like.’ Now all I feel is ‘Sad.’” “If I wanted to see politics, I’d turn on the news or something. It’s not like the politicians really do anything that changes people’s lives too much,” Jennings, a white male, told the State-Run Media. “It was great when my aunt used to just share crappy quotes from poets. Now she’s sharing depressing stories about people who aren’t allowed to see their families anymore.” When pressed about if he sees any problem with these new orders, Jennings did have something
to offer. “I mean, I did hear that some professional Smash Brothers player from Iran or somewhere isn’t let into the US anymore. So I guess that’s a pretty big deal I guess,” he said. Asked about the anti-Trump protests that have been breaking out nationwide, he said, “I mean yeah, I guess I’m glad people are standing up to him.” In regards to his own considerations of protesting he shrugged and said they seem to have enough people already. Jennings has recently been retreating to less political social media like Snapchat and Instagram, but claims to have seen a few anti-Trump updates on those too recently. “It’s really looking like I may have to move to LinkedIn,” he said with a shudder.
“Trump has gone too far this time,” says student who has politics on Facebook feed
graphic by Elias Brinkman
Turteltaub, seen here right after shouting, “Shut up, I think Campo’s here!”
Freshman starts sweating profusely after Campo knock After Campus Security officers arrived at a party, the freshman who answered the door became increasingly nervous. Conner Maggio 21, but forgot his ID At 3 p.m. last Friday, someone sent an anonymous tip about a student, fresh-faced, ready for adventure and dressed in a full tuxedo. The student was walking around looking confused and trying very clearly to impress strangers. The anonymous caller told Campo that he was heading into what appeared to be a “totally bitchin’ party” at an apartment. When the officer, resident loose cannon Officer Dean Chavez, knocked on the apartment door he heard murmurs coming from inside about who should open the door. When the door opened the officer noticed that the room smelled, “like bottom shelf liquor, body odor and asking the professor if you can leave to go to the bathroom,” all of which are arrestable offenses. The freshman who stood be-
fore him was trembling with fear and sweating profusely. Officer Chavez noted that the freshman, now identified as Bernard Turteltaub, who had ditched the tuxedo and changed into a shirt with his high school logo on it. The student talked in a mix of incomprehensible slang and slurring, but he seemed to say something along the lines of “You aren’t the pizza guy.” Turteltaub, a model student in one class and completely unknown in his other five classes, has been known to break rules frequently. Records show that he has been reported before for possession of candle paraphernalia. According to Turteltaub he “was just holding it for a friend,” but nobody has ever seen Turteltaub and a friend together in the same room. Turteltaub’s 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Holmes told the State-Run Media that he was known to “get the occasional yellow card,” a clear sign of a ruthless maniac. His former RA stated that the only interaction they had was him asking if he could “y’know, like... have a girl, like spend the night?” Suspect Bernard Turteltaub was detained for “looking guilty as hell” last Wednesday. No further investigation was necessary.
A local student who now has to deal with unwelcome shares from the ACLU is the true victim of Trump’s policies. Joe Moran Unfollows anyone who posts about politics In reference to the new President of the United States Donald J. Trump’s many controversial executive orders, local student Tyler Jennings has declared that he has finally had enough: “I can’t log onto any social media without having to see dozens of posts all complaining about something new he’s apparently done wrong,” Tyler says. He claims to
BEFORE
Above, you can see the true cost of radical policies – social media contamination.
AFTER
graphic by Sam Chott
6 February 2017
The Collegian: 15
COMFORT
CONNECTION
CONVENIENCE
Finding a roommate has never been easier TU’s online Roommate Finder service makes the process quick and painless.
1
Log on to CaneLink and select Roommate Finder under “Campus Housing.”
2
Complete a simple profile.
3
Review a list of compatible roommates.
Please see the housing website for additional information on roommate options and requirements.
ROOMMATE EVENTS: Pat Case Dining Center Garage, Monday, February 20, 9 p.m. FREE PIZZA
Priority parking Each student who completes a license and makes a selection will qualify for priority parking registration. Starting March 1, 2017 — Students who retain their current assignment or are a mutually confirmed roommate with a retainer may register for parking. Students participating in the lottery selection may complete their parking registration at the time of housing selection.
@TUCampusHousing
Housing Office: 918-631-2516
canelink.utulsa.edu 2016 Collegian Ads.indd 2
1/9/17 11:38 AM
6 February 2017
The Collegian: 16
BROWN VILLAGE • LORTON VILLAGE • MAYO VILLAGE • NORMAN VILLAGE • UNIVERSITY SQUARE VILLAGE • HARDESTY HALL • JOHN MABEE HALL • LAFORTUNE HOUSE • LOTTIE JANE MABEE HALL • WEST SUITES • BROWN VILLAGE • LORTON VILLAGE • MAYO VILLAGE • NORMAN VILLAGE • UNIVERSITY SQUARE VILLAGE • HARDESTY COMFORT HALL • JOHNCONVENIENCE MABEE HALL CONNECTION • LAFORTUNE HOUSE • LOTTIE JANE MABEE HALL • WEST SUITES • BROWN VILLAGE • LORTON VILLAGE • MAYO VILLAGE • NORMAN VILLAGE • UNIVERSITY SQUARE VILLAGE • HARDESTY HALL • JOHN MABEE HALL • LAFORTUNE HOUSE • LOTTIE JANE MABEE HALL • WEST SUITES • BROWN VILLAGE • LORTON VILLAGE • MAYO VILLAGE • NORMAN VILLAGE • UNIVERSITY SQUARE VILLAGE • HARDESTY HALL • JOHN MABEE HALL • LAFORTUNE HOUSE • LOTTIE JANE MABEE HALL • WEST SUITES • BROWN VILLAGE • LORTON VILLAGE • MAYO VILLAGE • NORMAN VILLAGE • UNIVERSITY SQUARE VILLAGE • HARDESTY HALL • JOHN MABEE HALL • LAFORTUNE HOUSE • LOTTIE JANE MABEE HALL • WEST SUITES • BROWN VILLAGE • LORTON VILLAGE • MAYO VILLAGE • NORMAN VILLAGE • UNIVERSITY SQUARE VILLAGE • HARDESTY HALL • JOHN MABEE HALL • LAFORTUNE HOUSE • LOTTIE JANE MABEE HALL Check out canelink.utulsa.edu • WEST SUITES • BROWN VILLAGE for information and helpful videos. • LORTON VILLAGE • MAYO VILLAGE • NORMAN VILLAGE • UNIVERSITY SQUARE VILLAGE • HARDESTY HALL • JOHN MABEE HALL • LAFORTUNE HOUSE • LOTTIE JANE MABEE HALL • WEST SUITES • BROWN
Housing selection starts Wednesday, Feb. 8
General Information Session There will be information booths in the Union Food Court and Pat Case Dining Center on Tuesday and Wednesday at noon from February 14-22. Please stop by and ask any questions.
Live Chat Available on Canelink Sunday through Thursday, February 12-22, chat live with a housing professional from 5 p.m.-10 p.m. To start a live chat, click on the “Apply for Housing” link within Canelink and look for the tab at the bottom.
Priority Parking Each student who completes a license and makes a selection will qualify for priority parking registration.
Housing Office: 918-631-2516
canelink.utulsa.edu 2016 Collegian Ads.indd 3
1/9/17 11:43 AM