23 January 2017

january 23, 2017 issue 14 ~ volume 102

a student newspaper of the university of tulsa

Tulsa stands with worldwide Women’s March, p 2

100+ TU students marched in MLK parade, p 3

TU students join local faith communities at March for Life, p 2 Graphic by Elias Brinkman

News

The Collegian: 2

23 January 2017

photos by Michaela Flonard

After marching around Guthrie Green, attendees returned to John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, where various women spoke and performed.

Women’s March unifies hundreds of Tulsans in peaceful protest

A diverse group of people attended the Tulsa Women’s March, a sister march to the Women’s March on Washington. Michaela Flonard News Editor

Last Saturday, women from across the US marched in the Women’s March on Washington. The goal of the March on Washington was to “affirm our shared humanity and pronounce our bold message of resistance and selfdetermination” in the wake of the recent presidential election. An estimated 673 sister marches happened in all 50 states and 32 countries to stand in solidarity with this message, one of which was right here in Tulsa. Around 610 people attended the Tulsa event according to the Facebook page. The event drew crowds of people to John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, where organizers spent around 45 minutes talking to the crowd. Then, the groups split: those who planned to march, those who would walk around the labyrinth at the park and those

who just planned to sit. Led by Peggy Pianalto, an organizer, the marching group walked from the park, around the Guthrie Green and back. The sheer size of people constrained to the sidewalk meant walking even this short distance took a considerable amount of time. When everyone had finally circled back to the park, organizers talked a little more, discussing ways attendees could continue to be involved in the movement. The microphone was then open to discussion from those who attended. Those that gathered at the march represented the diversity within the city and the U.S. as a whole. Some came representing the LGBTQ+ community, while several priests wearing clerical collars walked as well. Two women arrived carrying signs, one reading “second-wave feminist” and the other, “thirdwave feminist.” Plenty of children went with their parents, some even complete with signs reading “future feminist.” Topics such as fake vs real news and the environment were also present. Unusual clothing pieces ran rampant in the parade. The most prolific of these were “pink pussy

hats,” or pink hats with cat ears, representing President Trump’s infamous comment about where he grabbed women. Others wore shirts with uteruses extending the middle finger. A variety of equality slogans grazed other shirts. Some did come wearing Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders campaign shirts, but others wore variations on the slogan “nasty woman.” The signs people carried emphasized the variety of topics the march covered. There were several variations on “love thy ____ neighbor” and opposing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. A few people set up stations where attendees could register to vote. TU students also attended the march. Mallory Timmons was one of them, attending the march with her mother. “When I see opportunities to go out there and show how I feel about things, I go for them,” she said. She did, however, say that “as students, we look for [other] people to lead. I definitely am at fault for that. I don’t really know what to do on my own.” Another student, Jesica Santino, said she had “never felt such a strong sense of community, and

Protesters carried a variety of signs, featuring everything from warnings against fake news to support for Planned Parenthood.

this was with mostly strangers whom I had never met before.” “Kowing that we were marching in solidarity with the millions of women marching in Washington and around the world” was an amazing feeling to her. After the march, Santino loved a poetry reading from the piece by Lauren Zuniga called “A Poem to Progressives Plotting Mass Exodus,” to liberals in Oklahoma. “Regardless of who is president, the president works for the people, and we will not go down quietly.” she said. “I have never felt more proud to be a woman then I did that day.” One of those involved in organizing the march, Nancy Moran, emphasized how important the involvement of students was. “As an older person, I like to joke around that I want to suck the blood of

young people because they’re so young and vibrant and fresh and have great energy and such idealism and such hope.” Moran has been involved with organizing these events for many years, and said sometimes “when we’ve been around long enough, we can get tired and wonder if our efforts make any difference.” But when she is around young people, she said, “they’re creative and they’re savvy and their technological talents means that they can do so much.” During the Iraq War, she worked with TU students in rallies and to raise money for various causes, including domestic violence. According to Moran, “There are a lot of ways students can be active. We need them. They are the future. We need to step aside and let them lead.”

Notable signs:

“I’ve met god. She’s black and she wants equal rights.” “Keep your tiny hands off of our rights.” “You may be the king but watch the queens conquer.” “US Policy should not scare our children.” “His hands are TOO small to grab this pussy.” “Mess with my rights and I’ll get nasty.” “You can’t combover sexism.”

An estimated six hundred people attended the Tulsa march.

Students support pro-life cause at Tulsa March for Life TU students attended the Tulsa March for Life, which joined several faith communities for the purpose of celebrating life and calling for an end to abortion. The march occurs on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a 1973 US Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

The Tulsa March for Life was one of many around the country.

photos courtesy Jennifer Shelton

Pictured above, from left: TU students Jenni Jurgenson, Josh Bergman, Nathan Mackey, Bryan Kinzer and Hailey Liston, a FOCUS Missionary.

News

23 January 2017

The Collegian: 3

TU students march in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Instead of spending their Monday off relaxing, about 100 students marched under TU’s banner in Tulsa’s MLK Jr. parade. Michaela Flonard News Editor

Last Monday, TU students came together to march in Tulsa’s 38th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Parade, put on by the MLK Commemoration Society. The theme of this year’s parade was “Love Conquers Hate,” and featured floats, dance troupes, bands and even motorcycle clubs coming together to remember Dr. King’s message. Over a hundred students showed up to march under TU’s banner. Kyla Sloan, Executive Director of Diversity and Multiculturalism, said it was important for the university to be at the parade. “I think a lot of people might just see TU as a private school that’s super expensive and their kids could never go there, and all kinds of things like that.” While community members might see students volunteering in the community, she thinks the “general view of TU is sort of one of distance.” “I think it’s really important to show our faces and know the University of Tulsa supports the city of Tulsa,” she said. Sloan felt

photo by Michaela Flonard

In addition to attending the parade, TU students also attended an on-campus vigil for Dr. King and other civil rights leaders.

those watching the parade were responsive and happy TU was attending. This year, students were served breakfast as part of SA’s new directive to be purposeful. “If people are going to come out, we want to really make sure that they’re rewarded,” Sloan said, so “that they know that we are happy that they are actually participating.” The students walked for about 30-45 minutes, singing TU chants and other things

throughout the parade. After the parade, a vigil was also held on campus, to encourage more participation from students. The vigil featured an interfaith prayer, a student and faculty singer and performances by Phi Mu Alpha and DeVonn Douglass, Chief Resilience Officer for the city of Tulsa and TU alumnus. While the vigil was in Dr. King’s name, it also incorporated other civil rights leaders because, according to Sloan “there’s so many other

civil rights leader’s names that are written off in history or are less common names and we wanted to remember them as well.” “So many other people were trailblazers. So many people single out Dr. King as the one person, or Rosa Parks, but there are so many other people as well, and current civil rights people” who continue the fight for equality, Sloan continued. As for Dr. King’s famous dream, Sloan believes some of his dreams, which we take for granted now, have been achieved, like the desegregation of buses. Yet, she thinks “there’s still work to be done, whether it’s for equal treatment of people if they’re in police hands or just on a daily basis, and more tolerance and respect,” including for those in the LGBTQ+ community. “There’s a lot more work to be done, but I‘m so thankful for the advancements that have happened, because without them, we’d be light-years in the past. I’m thankful for all those civil rights leaders, but we still have things to accomplish,” she said. If Dr. King was here today, she finished, “he’d have a lot more to say, and a lot more things he’d wish would happen.” For future parades, Sloan hopes TU can collaborate with other organizations outside the university. She also hopes to further partner with the Student Veteran’s Association, especially for the upcoming Black History Month celebration.

courtesy Kyla Sloan

A wide range of TU students attended the march: SA members, athletes and international students.

photos by Michaela Flonard

Bama Company employees performed dance routines throughout the parade.

TCC students made a float with the theme of the parade: “Love Conquers Hate.”

Workplace Cultures ranking highlights diversity at TU TU was awarded a three-star rating in Mosaic’s 2016 Top Inclusive Workplace Cultures rankings. James Whisenhunt Commentary Editor In late October last year, Mosaic released their 2016 Top Inclusive Workplace Cultures rankings. Mosaic, as described by Executive Director Denise Reid, is “the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s diversity business council.” When Mosaic relaunched in 2010, they began coordinating their efforts to “educate, lead and influence businesses on creating diverse and inclusive workforce cultures to enhance their competitive advantage.” Their annual Top Inclusive Workplace Cultures ranking breaks down top businesses in the Tulsa area into five-, four- and three-star institutions, as well as noting Star Allies and Rising Stars. In 2016, 149 were collected from 90 large and 59 businesses in Tulsa. 78 or-

ganizations were recognized, including a three-star ranking for The University of Tulsa. Each year, an online survey is sent out to organizations across northeast Oklahoma and the results received (from almost 150 companies this year) are compiled and released in Mosaic’s Inclusive Workplace Cultures Survey Executive Summary. The process of determining what ranking a company receives is largely informed by Mosaic’s five pillars, developed after their relaunch: CEO Commitment, People, Internal Policy, Community Outreach, and Diverse Suppliers. Companies that fulfill more of the requirements outlined in each pillar receive a better ranking. Despite TU’s three-star ranking, Reid says the University qualified for a fivestar ranking in three of the five pillars: People, Internal Policy and Community Outreach. A five-star rating in the People category means that TU has succeeded in “recruiting, hiring, developing, promoting and retaining diverse candidates

or employees,” as well as evaluating disability accessibility in their locations and operations. In terms of Internal Policy, a five-star rating means that TU has sufficient “policy on sexual orientation, policy on gender identity” and policies that exceed minimum requirements for Equal Opportunity Employment. Last, in the field of Community Outreach, TU has managed to sufficiently track its philanthropic giving and provides “events, programs or services that support diversity” on a wide variety of topics. However, there are two categories that TU didn’t receive a five-star rating in: the University qualified for a fourstar rating on CEO Commitment and a three-star rating on Diverse Suppliers. For CEO Commitment, a five-star rating would mean that the CEO of a business is “visually and vocally supporting D[iversity]&I[nclusivity] initiatives and work” both internally and externally. To receive a five-star rating, Reid says TU would have had to provide another

example of CEO Commitment to diversity efforts. These ratings were released last October, before President Clancy stepped into office. For the last category, Diverse Suppliers, a five-star ranking means that the company tracks their spending to diverse suppliers and has a policy on the topic on their website. TU doesn’t have any policy readily available on their website, which led to the three-star ranking. TU may not have received a five- or four-star ranking, only 55 companies received a star ranking, just over a third of the total amount of responses. Reid notes that “Diversity and inclusion work is a journey and not a destination.” She also notes that the rankings “help [an] organization or company assess where they are” and that “the more companies or organizations that are open to improving their workplace culture the stronger the opportunities are for our community.”

News

The Collegian: 4

23 January 2017

Interfaith Dinner kicked off TU’s first Enlightenment week The organizers of TU’s first Interfaith Dinner share their motivations and hopes for the event. Michaela Flonard News Editor This Saturday, students attended the TU Interfaith Dinner, which kicked off TU’s Enlightenment week. The dinner was the spring follow-up to last semester’s Interfaith Tour. Several organizations were involved in organizing the event: the Malaysian Student Association (MASA), Student Association, Sharp Chapel, University United Methodist Church, TU Catholic Students, Muslim Student Association and Hillel of Northeastern Oklahoma. Reeza Redzuan, president of MASA, said his experiences this summer inspired these two interfaith events. Over the summer, he attended a vigil for the Orlando nightclub shooting in Tulsa. “Something really triggered in my mind,” he said, because “if Tulsa can do it, why not the TU community?” A few weeks later, the shooting of an innocent priest in France in the name of ISIS motivated him and MASA to visit with the Newman Center on campus in solidarity. For Redzuan, the event inspired him: “Why do we need to wait for tragedy to do something like this?” Redzuan resolved to hold an event to create conversation among this community. “We are very lucky [at TU],” he noted. “TU is one of the few universities in the US that has houses of worship next to each other.” From there, organizing the events was a matter of “networking and some bureaucracy that shouldn’t have even been there.” Redzuan is friends with Lilly Kopitar, president of the Hillel Association on campus, and regularly attends the Hillel dinners. Natalie Santa-Pinter, a student minister with the Newman Center, reached out to Redzuan after learning about his initiative. With other groups, he sent an email and received an enthusiastic response. According to Santa-Pinter, “that’s a really good sign of how open the community is to this sort of idea. It was just waiting for it to happen.” Through past discussions with Dr. Francis, Redzuan learned a similar event had been planned around eight years ago. “But it was not really successful,” he said, “because it was not run by students....From the faculty side, it’s different.” The special aspect of this event was that “we focus on students. Everything

LETTER Reflections on the civil rights movement from Brian Hosmer, H.G. Barnard Associate Professor of Western American History, for TU’s 2017 MLK Day celebration. I’m 56 years old and as a young person observed the heyday of the Martin Luther King-era civil rights movement. I remember when he was murdered, and in the aftermath, trying to understand what civil rights meant. I was 8 years old and from a solidly middle class white family and community. So, to the extent I am capable of representing my childhood mind, my earliest impressions of civil rights were, in a way, distant. I knew discrimination was wrong and unfair, but certainly was ignorant of its fuller dimensions. I did not understand how discrimination felt to those discriminated against. I begin with that reflection as a way to think deeply about how the notion, perhaps even definition, of civil rights has changed over these decades. When I came of age, civil rights largely meant securing to everyone the liberties guaranteed by our constitution and promoting the practices and habits — and expectations — of a fully integrated

photos by James Whisenhunt

Various faculty and administration, such as President Clancy and his wife Paula, also attended the event.

must be students,” which is why organizations like TU Catholic Students and Muslim Student Association were involved. Kopitar emphasized the attractiveness of a student-run event, saying “when it’s put on by faculty or when you’re forced to go to it, it almost feels like, ‘I don’t want to do this because I’m being told I have to,’ whereas if it’s run by students, I have a choice in what I do and how it’s run.” Such an event won’t “feel like it’s a faculty agenda, like ‘Oh they’re trying to make the school look better or force us into something. We’re coming together on our own.’” Santa-Pinter said “there’s a lot of people, a lot of voices that want to advocate understanding each other, just really looking at each other’s faith and backgrounds, but it takes an initiation and Reeza here has really done that for TU.” With the dinner, the organizers hoped to attract a different crowd of students than those who attended the Interfaith Tour. Those who attended the tour had to be interested in walking to several houses of faith on campus, while the dinner was more social and casual, with cultural elements to create understanding. With a dinner, Redzuan hoped to “attract some people who aren’t even religious, don’t even want religion, they just want to have a talk and a good meal.“ “This kind of event is a good approach for those people not even interested in religion. Because this is dinner and performances and during the prayers, they would probably say ‘this is bullshit who cares.’” With the tour, Redzuan said, “they have to go to the church, the mosque, they have to walk. But here it’s very open, even

to the editor society. Judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, to put it simply. But is that what we mean today? Clearly not. One of the more important and complicated aspects of our decades-long struggle to secure civil rights has been its expanding definition. Happily we now look at civil rights in a broader framework that we might describe as social justice, human rights, natural rights and basic decency. Full equality for all regardless of who they are, who they love, what they believe, how they appear to others. This is a remarkable development, it seems to me, because it moves us beyond ‘integration,’ one of King’s primary objectives, to respect for diversity. Civil rights now encompass the right to be who you are, and not simply a plea to be included. This is important to what I do in my professional life. As a student of American Indian history, I am reminded of the particular character of justice when it comes to indigenous communities. Decades ago, the great Dakota philosopher and activist Vine Deloria Jr. reminded good liberals that Indian

the performances are very openminded and not even preaching something.” Along with performances and prayers, the dinner also allowed time for discussion amongst the attendees. Redzuan hoped splitting people up according to their faith would prevent domination of a table by one religion, to encourage more learning and conversation. Kopitar hoped the discussion would focus not on conversion, but on conversation. “You cannot change something someone believes. And religion is religion. You can’t say that this is fact and this is fiction...we’re just here to talk about what we believe rather than hurt each other.” The rest of TU’s Enlightenment week had “welcome houses” at various on-campus houses of

worship, to allow those more interested to attend. The dinner also offered additional religions and cultures to explore. While last semester’s tour focused on houses of worship on campus, student interest in other cultures meant Redzuan included Buddhism, Hinduism and Native American beliefs at the dinner. Experiencing other cultures, Kopitar said, was an “awesome” side effect of studying at TU. But, she said, “I think it’s easy to stay within your comfort zone with your one religion, and not go to other people’s things. Because I don’t believe what you believe in, so it’s better if I just stay in my own thing. But it’s not about agreeing with each other, it’s about more understanding each other. It’s about saying we might

not agree on everything, but we can still be together and be friends and show tolerance to one another, even friendship.” “I think a lot of people think each religion is so different,” she continued, “But at the end of the day, we all have a core belief in doing good and helping each other and helping make the world a better place.” The recent political climate, Kopitar said, demonstrated the need for these kind of conversations. “I think everybody needs the ability to try to understand each other because of everything that’s happened. It’s really divided people. And religion has been brought into it.” “If religion has been used as a tool to disunite people, I think religion also can be used as a perfect tool to unite people,” Redzuan said, “But I think this specific event is the perfect tool to unite those from the conservative side ideologically, and those who accept people ideologically as well.” While Redzuan, Santa-Pinter and Kopitar are all graduating this year, Redzuan believes these two events will continue. “Under MASA, I want to make this a brand. Even though MASA is not a religious organization, we want to be a forefront advocate for social justice and equality,” he said, mentioning that he already has a successor who he invites to many organizational events. To continue this interfaith mission, Santa-Pinter said religious groups need to “keep those doors open and those windows and avenues for conversation to flow through… Hopefully it continues and gets better in the future.”

Students were assigned seats to minimize the chance that one religious belief would dominate a table.

people were not agitating for civil rights if by that we mean inclusion or integration. Rather, they were — and are — demanding to live as they would and be who they are. They are demanding their rights as nations whose status is promised and protected by treaties and a nation-to-nation relationship with the federal government. Theirs is the language of sovereignty. Back then, this was a difficult concept for liberals and conservatives to appreciate. “Isn’t the goal full integration?” they would ask. “Don’t we desire an end to looking at race or other characteristics, that distinguish people from one another? Are separate rights ultimately the same thing as ‘discrimination?’” One of the heartening aspects of our ongoing conversation has been its capacity to grow. So when we think of civil rights today, we can appreciate that respecting difference is not a return to discrimination but a broader appreciation for the beauty and value of every person, and culture, and race, and belief and capacity. That is a truly expansive notion, and we should be grateful to King for articulating a message with the capacity to grow beyond his own experiences and perhaps even his own perspectives. We are talking about human rights more than civil rights these days — and that is positive, in my view. But still, there is more. If King

were alive today he would be justly proud of the journey we’ve taken, but saddened — I think — by the persistence of instruments and structures and beliefs that hold some people back. And bothered by fact that race — how people look — or culture or even geography still prevent so many people from full participation in our society. We are re-segregating our schools and communities. Crime is down in affluent neighborhoods but a scourge to others, urban and rural alike. Opportunity too often follows socio-economic position. We no longer appreciate the vital role ‘public space’ and public accommodations play to our broader liberties. And make no mistake, civil rights are being eroded, from voter suppression to defunding public education to gerrymandered districts. To my mind, we need to state clearly and directly that this is being done deliberately and for political gain. We need to recognize and denounce the use of bigoted language to corrupt our political discourse. But we also need to think about opportunity. What is needed is a recommitment to some of the principles King and so many others fought and died to secure. It is well known that in his later days, MLK spoke forcefully about poverty and war. He saw securing economic and social justice as the critical next steps in this long journey. He understood who sacrificed life and

limb on the battlefield and who profited from war. This was the critical link that he saw — and for which he was roundly criticized. It is a message Nelson Mandela also articulated. And it is our responsibility to recommit ourselves to the protection of the gains we’ve made, the expansive notion of civil rights — toward human rights — we now appreciate and the understanding that without social and economic justice, our rights — our way of life — is endangered. I was struck by one line in President Obama’s farewell address. If I may paraphrase, he observed that if every economic challenge is cast as a struggle between a hard-working white male and an undeserving minority, then all workers will suffer while the wealthy few retreat to their private enclaves. That future is unacceptable. Understanding the importance of economic justice — the existence of class distinctions in our society — must not, as some say, come at the expense of notions of identity or the appreciation of the great diversity of experiences and perspectives that shape our lives. We don’t have to choose between economic justice and identity. We can and must think more broadly. And that challenge is what civil rights means to me. The Collegian does not edit letters to the editor.

News

23 January 2017

The Collegian: 5

Tulsa ranked #1 for female-owned small businesses

Tulsa was ranked the best city in the country for women who are looking to start a small business. Brandy Sandusky, founder of Rogue Marketing, and Libby Billings, owner of three Deco District restaurants, share their thoughts on the Tulsa business scene. Hannah Kloppenburg Editor-in-Chief

In late 2016, a Small Business Friendliness Survey conducted by Thumbtack named Tulsa the best city in the country for women who are starting small businesses. Thumbtack conducted interviews with female business owners throughout the country to calculate and compile the information into a study which focused on the owners’ optimism about their prospects, pay and area friendliness toward women-owned businesses. More than 12,000 small business owners participated, spanning 35 states and 78 cities. Of these 78 cities, Tulsa earned the #1 ranking. What makes a successful small business owner in the first place? In order to get to the root of Thumbtack’s rating, The Collegian spoke with two local business owners: Brandy Sandusky, founder of Rogue Marketing LLC, and Libby Billings, owner of three popular Deco District restaurants (Elote, The Vault and Roppongi). Sandusky is a TU alumni who graduated in 2000 with an MSBA. She played cello in the orchestra during her time at TU. “[My professors] wanted me to be a performance major but I didn’t want to play without the orchestra, I liked the feeling of having a team around me. You’re inspired by other people around you when you have elements that can fill the music in,” she said. After college, she began working at Tulsa’s Channel 8. “I’d had a taste of how agencies operated, but I didn’t feel like it was a very good environment, so I went to work for Marsha Baker as an account executive,” Sandusky said. Libby Billings is a Booker T Washington alumni and OSU IT culinary school graduate who began as a caterer and quickly real-

ized that to maintain her growing business, she would need a brick-and-mortar kitchen. She founded Elote in 2008, eventually growing her business to include The Vault, a more upscale American dining restaurant, and Roppongi, a new and successful ramen bar. Billings’ restaurants are notable for their eco-friendly practices, including the use of free-range meat and organic ingredients. “I was actually the first restaurant to have recycled commercially and the first restaurant to use eco-friendly to-go boxes. We have an eco-platinum certification that nobody else in Oklahoma has,” she said. Both women quickly realized that they preferred operating their own businesses to working for someone else. Sandusky worked for a man who “wasn’t very organized or helpful” for about three months before she started her own marketing agency. “But I did get to observe someone else’s failure — I learned what not to do,” she quipped. “At Rogue I get to be the composer, the conductor, and that is so much more rewarding. Seeing other people’s work come to fru-

husband had just moved to a new home. Billings noted that the success of her restaurants presented her with the challenge of learning how to relate to different clientele. “Whenever I started the Vault, I thought it would end up being a place where Elote clientele ate when they wanted a nicer, a little more upscale meal, but there isn’t a lot of crossover, it turns out. It’s much more upscale, and I kinda had to change it into that…I do have a little bit of a harder time relating to the audience at the Vault, but I’m getting it, and I’ve hired the right people to do that in the restaurant.” Though Tulsa is rated #1 for femaleowned businesses, Sandusky has noticed that there is a specific standard for women to adhere to in business. “I think there was a time when I had to be in heels and a dress and look a certain way,” she said. She recalled being at a meeting where a man asked her to go get coffee for everyone, not realizing that she was the one running the meeting. Billings has noticed a distinct minority of women in business environments. “I am often the only woman at the table or one of

“‘Seeing other people’s work come to fruition... that’s worth more than any amount of money.’” ition...that’s worth more than any amount of money,” Sandusky said. Billings, too, prefers to be her own boss. “I managed some restaurants before I started Elote and…I’m not very good at listening to what other people tell me to do,” she laughed. “I’m very creative, and I like the freedom of working really hard and seeing the result from that… It is in me, I don’t think I’m meant to work for other people.” The two women have faced challenges with the growing success of their businesses. Both Billings and Sandusky are mothers with two children. Billings originally only opened Elote for lunch on weekdays so that she “could still be a mom at night and on weekends,” but “it was really, really hard to make it financially,” so she eventually opened the restaurant full-time. Sandusky also faced a similar situation — when she founded Rogue Marketing, one of her two sons was a newborn baby and she and her

very few. I serve on a number of committees and boards and councils and it is frequently male-dominated. But that hasn’t ever really bothered me, probably because I have four brothers, so that is kind of just how it’s always been.” Despite this, both women mention the contributions of their Tulsan mentors, male and female, to their success. Sandusky mentioned that Tulsa provided her with mentors such as TU’s own advertising professor Bill Hinkle, as well as many successful Tulsan women. “Marsha Baker and Terri WalkerCornett, Beverly Roff, Gayle Larson and Deborah Kurin. There was a super team of women at Channel 8 and I just happened to be in the right garden at the right time so I grew,” she explained. Sandusky said that her biggest mentor is her mother, who “taught me 40 years ago that women can be strong and do anything.” Billings gave a nod to her female busi-

ness mentors, and also noted a lack of support between women in the business community. “With social media and Yelp and TripAdvisor and all that stuff, everybody’s a critic, especially when you’re in food,” she said. “So if an article is written about you in the paper...people have torn me apart. It’s always women that will tear me apart, so I’ve had to get really thick skin.” “I wish that would change, for sure,” she remarked. Both Sandusky and Billings noted that Tulsa is an extremely affordable city, both in terms of living costs and business costs, and that this may make it conducive to starting a small business. Sandusky also pointed out that other attractions, like Tulsa’s parks and entertainment industry, are a draw for people wanting to live and work here. “My children have a lot of green grass and blue sky to look at. We have amazing things like the Tulsa Ballet and the symphony.” Massive amounts of development and fostering of the arts in downtown Tulsa in the past decade may also have an effect on the city’s business success. Billings herself contributed to this, bringing people to the Deco District with luchadores and various festivals based at Elote. Sandusky and Billings both mentioned Tulsa’s various resources for business owners. Sandusky remarked that “Tulsa has the intelligence and the creativeness and the think-tank of a major market without the hassle.” “Tulsa’s a very accepting economic environment,” she continued. “It’s receptive to change. A good climate.” Billings said “We do have a lot of organizations like the Small Business Administration and the Chamber [of Commerce] that want to see you succeed...there’s tons of resources there if you need help.” Both women emphasized that their fellow Tulsans provide business owners with a support system. “I have my audience of people who want to support local and free-range and organic,” Billings said. “Tulsans do love to support other Tulsans, so that’s been a good thing for sure.” “I think people are willing to help each other here,” Sandusky smiled. “We’re still willing to shake hands and hug and wear boots.”

Coworking space encourages businesses to cooperate The Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation also runs a variety of programs that help entrepreneurs. Cultivate 918 holds monthly education and networking events. StartUp Series allows small business owners to pitch their ideas to win prizes and support. Kitchen 66 provides training, kitchen space and mentoring to food entrepreneurs.

Tulsa’s 36 Degrees North celebrates its first birthday as a cooperative space for Tulsan entrepreneurs. Giselle Willis Managing Editor

This Wednesday, Jan. 25, an old Ford Model T manufacturing plant celebrates its first birthday as a renovated coworking space in downtown Tulsa. It’s called 36 Degrees North, and it opened following a 2014 report’s conclusion that Tulsa’s entrepreneurs were lacking a physical space for development and networking. The report also declared that the entrepreneurs were worth investing in, given that small businesses in Tulsa have an economic impact on the city of around $3 billion annually. The Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation commissioned the report, titled “Assessing Tulsa’s Entrepreneurial Landscape.” It partnered with the George Kaiser Family Foundation, who owned the building downtown, to create the missing space. The goal was to allow previously siloed business people to build off of each other’s strengths. According to the report, entrepreneurship is a great way to allow economic development, and this is especially true if the entrepreneurs can share an overarching vision. Businesses create more opportunities for higher quality of life, and ultimately help form an attractive city.

photos by Giselle Willis

36 Degrees North opened in an old Ford Model T factory one year ago on January 25.

Natalie Deushchle, Grant Manager at the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation, first walked into the building a year ago and was pleasantly shocked to think that it was in Tulsa. Coworking offices are in big cities across the world, so to see one here was inspiring. She said 36 Degrees North is special because “Tulsa is on the edge of so much, and the energy inside is really upbeat.” Besides, while bigger cities have coworking members who mainly compete with each other, Tulsa’s members have proven themselves quite collaborative. The point of coworking, explained Deushchle, is precisely those mutually beneficial partnerships that can result from

“collisions.” Shanese Slaton, Operations Manager of 36 Degrees North, gave an example comparing The Frontier’s coverage of Tulsa’s mayoral election with their coverage of the presidential election. For the presidential election coverage, they had teamed up with Intent Productions from What’s Happening Tulsa after meeting at 36 Degrees North. The space offers its members a happy hour every Friday at 4 in the kitchen, as well as office hours during the week, during which members can come in and ask the staff questions. Mayor G.T. Bynum has also said he will be coworking

RailsBridge: Intro to Web Development for Women Installfest, Friday Jan. 27, 5:30-8:30 p.m. + Workshop, Saturday Jan. 28, 9-5 p.m. If you haven’t been to a RailsBridge event or used Rails before, go to the Installfest to get the proper software installed. After the workshop on Saturday, you end up with a complete web application. Cultivate 918 Wednesday, Feb. 8, 5-7 p.m. For if you want to learn more about starting your own business! Tulsa Game Developers Thursday, Feb. 16, 7-9 p.m. Programmers, artists and musicians interested in game design can meet to share ideas, solve problems and meet potential collaborators.

36 Degrees North‘s members have proven quite cooperative.

36 Degrees North has a wall of positive press for motivation.

there once a month. “We’ve come a far way in a year,” noted Deushchle, citing the online event calendar and assembly room on the first floor as their biggest assets. Hosting events at the common space is important because it allows for specific networking opportunities that go beyond waiting for people to organically have “collisions.” The calendar keeps all of the information organized in one place, as opposed to the internet-infamous disarray

of different organizations hosting different events and advertising them on disparate media profiles. Deushchle added that, a few months ago, Tulsa was named the best city in the US for women entrepreneurs. According to the Thumbtack survey, this city ranks highly in pay and friendliness toward womenowned businesses. For more on women in business, see Hannah Kloppeburg’s article Tulsa ranked #1 for female-owned small businesses.

The Collegian: 6

Dec. 21 11:30 a.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to speak with a professor at Chapman Hall about some suspicious activity. Upon arrival officers met with the professor who found hair that had been cut and left on their desk. The professor filled out a statement and officers are viewing cameras. Dec. 22 10:45 a.m. University of Tulsa campus Security dispatch received an odd phone call from an individual who would not identify themselves. When responding to dispatch they replied with “God Bless You, God Bless You”. The caller did not sound distressed or intoxicated. The caller hung up after being questioned if they needed any help. The caller ID showed up as a person that was affiliated with the University. Dec. 23 3:48 p.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were advised by the Tulsa County Dis-

News

trict Attorney’s Office of a sexual battery of a student by another student occurring at Mayo Village apartments. The student has been dismissed from the University, is currently being detained by the San Antonio Police Department and is awaiting extradition to Tulsa County.

stated they were looking for the Chick-filA on 5th Place. Officers informed them this was private property and checked for previous contacts. The individual is chronically homeless and cognitively impaired. They were escorted off-campus and another contact card was completed for the incident.

Dec. 24 10:30 p.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to the Kappa Sigma Fraternity house in regards to two of the members having property stolen from their rooms. Upon arrival, officers met with the members who stated they had entered their rooms to find their laptops were missing. Upon investigation officers saw no signs of forced entry in the rooms.

Dec. 30 10:30 p.m. While on routine patrol University of Tulsa campus Security Officers noticed words on the ground in the Case Tennis Lot written in an unknown substance.

Dec. 27 12:10 a.m. While on routine patrol University of Tulsa campus Security Officers noticed a vehicle that matched the description of a suspicious vehicle from the evening shift drive through the U.S. South lot. When officers approached the vehicle, the driver left the parking lot at a high rate of speed, ran the stop sign at 4th Place and Delaware Avenue and headed north on Delaware Avenue off of campus. Dec. 28 1:50 p.m. While on routine patrol University of Tulsa campus Security Officers observed an individual walking by Mary K. Chapman. Upon making contact with the individual they

Nathan Gibbons Distribution Manager Riots in Washington DC Last Friday, protests in downtown DC grew chaotic as police and protesters clashed in the streets during Trump’s inauguration. 217 protesters were arrested and three people, including two officers, had to be taken to a hospital. “Pepper spray and other control devices were used to control the criminal actors and protect persons and property,” police said. Protests occurred in New York, Seattle, Dallas, Chicago, Portland, and overseas in Hong Kong, Berlin and China. One person in Seattle is in critical condition after sustaining a gunshot wound. In Washington DC, acting DC Police Chief Peter Newsham said “We have been pointing out all along that this is a very isolated incident, and by and large, everything is going peacefully and a lot of folks have come to the city to enjoy this historic day, not only the Capitol but walking all around the city.” On Saturday, over a million joined in peaceful women’s marches across the world to protest Trump’s inauguration. Marina Knight, a forty-year-old mother in London, stated, “I feel the rights we take for granted could go backward, and we owe it to our daughters and the next generation to fix this somehow.”

Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh agrees to step down According to incoming president Adama Barrow, Yahya Jammeh, who ruled Gambia for 22 years, agreed to step down peacefully last Friday. “I would like to inform you that Yahya Jammeh has agreed to step down. He is scheduled to depart Gambia today. #NewGambia,” tweeted Adama Barrow. Despite pressure from the United Nations and other local powers, Yahya Jammeh had rejected Barrow’s December 1 election win for weeks. Senegalese government figures told the UN’s refugee agency that 46,000 people fled Gambia for Senegal in fear of a crisis. Former real estate agent-turned politician Barrow had also sought refuge in Senegal. Jammeh negotiated with the Economic Community of West African States for amnesty regarding any crimes he may have committed while in power, and permission to live in his hometown in Gambia. Marcel Alain de Souza, head of ECOWAS, said that those terms were unacceptable, and that Jammeh’s presence in Gambia would lead to “disturbances to public order and terrorist movements.”

Avalanche in Italy Last Friday, rescuers found ten survivors after an avalanche buried about 30 people in the four-star Hotel Rigopiano in Italy. Civil Protection Chief Fabrizio Curcio said that five of the survivors had been rescued and that progress was being made on the other five. Footage shows onlookers cheering as paramedics lead the survivors away. Rescue workers reported that a group of survivors had survived in the kitchen area thanks to air pockets that formed when the reinforced walls resisted collapse. One rescuer said that it was “probable that they realized the risk and took protective measures.” The mountain hotel couldn’t be easily accessed, and a 5.5 mile path is being cleared for heavier equipment. Multiple earthquakes have struck central Italy since August, destroying cities and killing hundreds. It’s unclear yet whether or not an earthquake caused the avalanche.

Islamic State destroys ancient Roman theatre Syrian authorities say satellite images taken January 10 confirm extensive damage done to the historic Roman amphitheatre in the ancient city of Palmyra. The Syrian Directorate General for Antiquities and Museums said in a statement that “significant damage to the Tetrapylon and the Roman Theater, caused [as a] result of intentional destructions by ISIS” could be seen in the overhead images. Omar Albenia, a spokesperson for the council of Palmyra and Badia, said, “This is a great loss for the people of Palmyra and what Palmyra stands for in history, because it is an important historical site that was well preserved over the years...We at the council of Palmyra and Badia condemn this cowardly terrorist attack carried out by ISIS and also place the blame on the Syrian regime of what is happening in Palmyra when the city of Palmyra has exchanged hands between ISIS and the Syrian regime several times.” ISIS had been pushed out of Palmyra before, but retook the city when Syrian forces left the area.

Jan. 3 8:15 a.m. While on routine patrol University of Tulsa campus Security officers initiated a pedestrian check on an individual who walked into University West Apartments. Initially, the individual did not stop for officers and continued walking into the apartment complex. They did not hear officers because they had their hooded jacket up with earbuds in, listening to music. The individual had a TU Vendor’s ID and said they were working with Pinpoint Personnel to clean apartments. Jan. 4 10:20 p.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to Mayo Village regarding an apartment door being open upon the resident’s return from winter break. Officers searched the apartment and there were no signs of forced entry or other suspicious activity. The resident looked through the

23 January 2017

apartment and stated that nothing appeared to be missing. The roommate told the resident over the phone that the they left the door locked when they left the apartment. Jan. 6 6:00 a.m. While on routine patrol University of Tulsa campus Security Officers initiated a pedestrian check on an individual who was observed walking away from the Mayo Village apartments. The individual was identified as non-TU affiliated but claimed to be residing in a relative’s on campus apartment alone and in possession of keys to the apartment. The individual walked away from officers to Quik-Trip leaving behind a driver’s license. Officers returned the driver’s license to the individual at Quik-Trip and attempted to verify the housing situation and retrieve the keys. Officers contacted the Housing Department for assistance in the incident. Jan. 9 11:10 p.m. University of Tulsa campus Security Officers were dispatched to Fisher West in reference to a domestic involving a possible weapon. Upon further investigation it was determined that it was a argument between 2 students. The situation was relieved and both students went back to their rooms without any incident. The Collegian does not produce or edit the Campus Crime Watch except for content and brevity.

Tuesday, January 24 at 7:00pm to 8:30pm All Souls Unitarian Church Debating Darwin: The Book That Changed America Over 150 years later, Darwin is still a hot topic. Hear the compelling story of the effect of Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species on America and a diverse group of writers, abolitionists and social reformers, including Henry David Thoreau. Explore the history of “the book that changed America” with acclaimed author Randall Fuller, chair of the English Department at The University of Tulsa. Cosponsored by TU’s creative writing program. Tuesday, January 24 at 7:30pm to 9:00pm Lorton Performance Center, Gussman Concert Hall Pianist Krisztina Wajsza in Concert The University of Tulsa School of Music and the J. Donald Feagin Visiting Artist program present Swiss pianist Krisztina Wajsza in concert. Wajsza was a first-prize winner at the Mozart Competition in New York in 1990. She gave her debut in 1990 at Alice Tully Hall in New York, and in 1999 performed at the Konzerthaus in Vienna with the Wiener Kammerorchester and at Brucknerhaus in Linz. Wajsza has also performed as a soloist with many international orchestras, including the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Festival Strings Lucerne, Chamber Orchestra of Bern, and the Bern Symphony Orchestra. In addition to her Tuesday evening concert performance, Ms. Wajsza will also present a master class from noon to 3:00 PM on Wednesday, January 25 in the Meinig Recital Hall. The noon-time recital class and evening concert are both free and open to the public. Tuesday, January 24 at 7:00pm Kendall Hall, Chapman Theatre

Julius Caesar TU Theatre presents Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Free TU Performance: Tuesday, Jan. 24, 7 p.m. Local Tour: Jan. 25, Feb. 3, Feb. 17 and April 5 Region Tour: Jan. 26-27 - 4 Performances (KS or MO high schools) Region Tour: April 6-7 – 4 Performances (TX high schools) Wednesday, January 25 at 7:00pm to 9:00pm Chapman Commons, Lecture Hall News for a New World A public discussion among members of Tulsa’s professional journalism community about the effects of technological changes on political coverage, and possibilities for the future. Friday, January 27 at 1:45pm Muslim Student Association Prayer House TU Enlightenment Week Open House: Muslim Prayer House In coordination with TU Enlightenment Week, Muslim Student Association Activity Center (Masjid Al-Jamaah) opens its doors to all faiths and non-faiths to learn more about Islam. Come see how weekly Friday prayer and the sermon or “khutbah” are conducted. All participants are reminded to wear modest clothing throughout the session. Please gather in front of the mosque latest by 1:55 pm. Friday, January 27 at 6:00pm Hillel House TU Enlightenment Week Open House: Jewish Hillel House In coordination with TU Enlightenment Week, TU Hillel House opens its doors to all faiths and non-faiths to learn more about Judaism. Come see how Shabbat rituals are conducted while enjoying tasty, kosher food. However, due to very limited space, all participants are required to RSVP to team@ oklahillel.org by Wednesday Jan 25. Saturday, January 28 at 11:00am to 12:15pm Mabee Gym, Spirit Room Hip Hop Master Class Ever wanted to try hip hop? Are you a hip hop master? Everyone is welcome to try the Hip Hop master class taught by The Legacy Project. No experience is necessary, tennis shoes and loose pants are recommended. Sponsored by Terpsichore. The Collegian does not produce all event descriptions in the Community Calendar. Contact us at news@tucollegian.org with events.

News

23 January 2017

The Collegian: 7

Local stores closing, students to blame? Several Tulsa branches of national stores are closing. Students’ buying habits may have contributed to their decline. Kayleigh Thesenvitz Social Media Manager

courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The President’s house President Clancy and his family now reside at 2101 S. Madison Ave.

The university re-acquired Skelly Mansion by the university in 2012 to house the sitting president. Dalton Stewart Student Writer

In 2012, the University of Tulsa acquired a new building for the sitting president of the university to reside in during his term. Located at 2101 S. Madison Avenue, Skelly Mansion was the home of former President Geoffrey Orsak first. Previous owners range from the families of former U.S. representatives to local architects. The current estimate for the house value is 2.6 million dollars, and it is approximately 9,000 square feet. The name Skelly might ring a bell to some, as it is also the name of TU’s football field, Skelly Field. The same family that donated the funds to make Skelly Field a reality also donated the house. William Skelly passed in 1957, and the mansion was donated to the University. However, TU sold the property only two years later, in 1959. During that time,

the house became an iconic symbol in Tulsan history, as well as nationally. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the late 70’s. Now, the house is the current residence of President Gerard Clancy and his family. I was able to speak with President Clancy about his stay in the house. It is part of his contract that he must reside in the house. The ground floor of the house is fully equipped for entertaining all types of guests, Clancy says, with a “large scale banquet level kitchen” to hold and feed more than 120 people. He, his wife Paula and their son Joey live in a private section of the second floor of the two story mansion. Locks on their section are keyed differently than the rest of the mansion, Clancy says, allowing him and his family privacy when events are ongoing. Since their move in late November, Clancy and his family, along with the University, have held over 16 TU events at the mansion in the 6 week period they have been staying there. He says the average for events is about 50 per year.

On the last day of 2016, Business Insider reported that several well known “retailers are bracing for a fresh wave of store closures at the start of the new year.” The article also speculated, “the industry is heading into 2017 with a glut of store space as shopping continues to shift online and foot traffic to malls declines.” Two prominent department store chains are closing their Tulsa branches. Macy’s department store in the Promenade Mall and the Sears on 1901 S Yale Ave have both closed. According to an NBC report on Jan 5, “Macy’s and Sears detailed massive closure plans ... shutting more than 200 locations and shedding 10,000 jobs across the country.”

In response to the claim about the shift to online shopping, we interviewed a few of our fellow students about their shopping habits. Freshman Avery Roper said, “I do most of my shopping online because it is convenient, so I don’t have to leave campus. Also, I can find things cheaper online most of the time.” Freshman Megan Sinik shops online because, “normally I know when there are sales online, but not necessarily in the store. Also, it is more organized and easier to compare prices.” Several other students gave similar responses. However, not everyone preferred to shop online. Freshman Sydney Allison shops both online and in local stores because, “I love actually seeing and feeling the clothes I buy.” Only one respondent, Freshman Saranya Varasnasi, said she prefered department stores because, “buying things like clothes, shoes, etc. online makes me nervous.”

Campus Security phone outages are nothing to worry about Recent warnings concerning Campus Security’s phone services are related to planned upgrades, vendor issues or unplanned service problems. Grace McFee Student Writer TU students who receive text messages as part of the university’s emergency notification program may have noticed the recent warnings concerning Campus Security’s phone services. So far this month, there have been three campus phone outages that have ranged in time from 20 to 90 minutes, though at least one of those occurred over the winter break. These outages, which are reported to the campus community via text any time they prevent incoming calls to TU’s Campus Security office, are generally a result of planned system updates or other information infrastructure upgrades. Other times, the outages are caused by vendor issues or unplanned system service problems. Phone outages have been happening periodically since the university replaced its old telephone system with VoIP (voice over internet protocol) technology three years ago. While no cause for alarm, those who have opted into the emergency notification service receive phone updates to prevent callers from experiencing a delay if they need to report an emergency. The message contains an alternate phone number and/or instructions to report any emergencies to 911 while the phones are down. A follow-up text is sent once the outage has been resolved and the phones are back online. Though the phone outages should not be concerning in and of themselves, many TU students have been completely unaware of the situation, as

only those who have previously signed up for the emergency text message service have gotten the alerts. This service is a “key component of the university’s emergency notification program and... all members of the campus community are strongly encouraged to enroll in the program,” said Mona Chamberlin, the university director of marketing and communications. Students and employees are able to sign up by logging into http://portal.utulsa.edu, navigating to the Information Technology link and clicking on “Emergency Text Registration.”

courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The Macy’s in Promenade Mall and the Sears on Yale are both closing soon.

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

photo by Michaela Flonard

Those who opt into the emergency notification service receive notifications whenever calls to Campus Security’s phones are interrupted.

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.

The Collegian: 8

Commentary

23 January 2017

Congress people should have attended inauguration

Although Congress members may disagree with President Trump’s policies and rhetoric, skipping his inauguration could be detrimental to bipartisan legislative efforts. Giselle Willis Managing Editor Last Friday, over sixty Congress members boycotted President Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony. All of them were Democrats, and most of them publicly announced that they would not be attending because of their opposition to

the president’s rhetoric. Meanwhile, people in organizations like the Girl Scouts and the Rockettes argued that they should not have to be there for a president who has no qualms about calling women horrible names and talking about grabbing or lusting for their bodies. The Congress people held similar views. Others, like maybe the 45 percent of white women with college degrees who voted for Donald Trump, maintained that “Trump-as-misogynist” was just a media ploy to distract from the fact that he has hired women to leadership positions in his businesses and is looking to do so in his cabinet. Perhaps they also felt that his words would not affect them or anyone else. All seven of Oklahoma’s Congress people were in attendance. I imagine some of those same people might find that the government officials who boycotted the ceremony are pandering politicians and petulant “losers.” On the contrary, I think the boycotting was helpful in signifying to those who were marginalized and threatened by the president during his

campaign that they still have supporters in Washington. Yet I would argue that there are even better ways of giving that signal, that this type of avoidance could prove counterproductive and that having attended the inauguration does not equate to complacency (Bernie Sanders went, college kids!), but does contribute to supporting the peaceful transfer of power. Publicly announcing the symbolic gesture of avoiding a symbolic ceremony is not as useful as passing legislation. Some of the Congress people, such as Luis Gutiérrez

involves using connections and getting bipartisan support to increase your chances of passing or stopping bills. Practically speaking, because of the positions that these members of Congress are in, the maintenance of political connections is more useful to the resistance they purport to support than indignant cold shoulders. Saul Alinsky, author of the book “Rules for Radicals,” wrote, “True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within.” I disagree that this is the

“Publicly announcing the symbolic gesture of avoiding a symbolic ceremony is not as useful as passing legislation.” (Democrat, Illinois), at least noted that they would be attending the Women’s March on Washington instead of the inauguration. While this is something of a symbolic gesture, it requires action instead of inaction. Meanwhile, opposing Trump in part

only true type of revolutionary, but I will say they are an invaluable type. Grassroots organization can do a lot, but eventually any movement needs people in the government to make sure the social impact they have accomplished is codified.

Inauguration boycott is a stand for legislators’ values recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and endurable.” Yet in those times as now, people are not

The choice to skip President Trump’s inauguration was an important example of legislators putting their words into action. Kayleigh Thesenvitz Social Media Manager Several congressmen and women boycotted Trump’s inauguration, and it was wonderful. In doing so they affirmed the strongly held beliefs of every US citizen who ever said “Never Trump.” In what may be the mildest form of civil disobedience, they symbolically withdrew their support. The choice made by these members of Congress rings of a choice made almost 170 years ago by abolitionist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau. In his essay “On Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau wrote, “All men

graphic by Madeline Woods

The legislators’ decision to boycott Trump’s inauguration shows a commitment to ideals.

so turned off by the injustices happening in Washington DC that they feel compelled to call for revolution. Civil disobedience for Thoreau was a call

to action. Not necessarily a call to riot in the streets out of protest, but a call to do more than complacently accept the results of the election. These men and women didn’t rely

on the fact that their vote for Johnson or Clinton proved they didn’t support Trump. They truly believe that inaugurating a President Trump, with his demeaning attitudes toward women and racial, ethnic and religious minorities, is an injustice to the American people, and that they too would be committing an injustice if they stood idly by defending a peaceful transition of power. Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” By standing around, observing Trumps inauguration and opposing it in word only, these congressmen and women would be giving Trump their tacit consent. By refusing to go, they are choosing not to be neutral. The thing is, boycotting Trump’s inauguration is not equivalent to avoiding the problem. Especially not for members of Congress who will spend the next four years vehemently challenging his administration. Maybe they could have done more, they could have been out marching in the streets, but as legislators they have more important work to do. They need to put their political energy toward mitigating the impact of a Trump presidency, and so the symbolic act of boycotting was enough.

Suicide prevention efforts should start at its causes

For years, organizations have discussed suicide, too often lacking discussion on well-being as a whole. Trenton Gibbons Variety Editor

Suicide is, to say the least, a difficult topic to broach with someone. It suffers first from its inherently morbid nature, and next from how strange a concept it can be to those who are wholly foreign to it. I personally can recall several conversations with people who confessed, sometimes proudly, to consider the victims of suicide to be cowards. I can also personally recall informing a trusted faculty member at a previous school that I suspected a classmate of mine of being genuinely suicidal. He had, after all, demonstrated to some mutual friends and I several symptoms of suicidal tendencies, including deep cuts across his wrist and arms. Suicidal notions are often said to be a “cry for help”

and this case was no exception. What kept him from explicitly communicating with anyone about his depression was the stigma that surrounds suicide, a direct product of the “coward’s way out” mindset that some still retain. It is this stigma that many Oklahoman organizations are intending to eliminate in 2017, especially given the state’s mortality statistics from previous years. In 2016, Oklahoma was ranked 13th in highest suicide rates per state; Tulsa itself ranked 15th out of US cities. What makes this state so lethal in this regard? The obvious answer is Oklahoma’s notoriously poor mental health services, but there’s more to it than that. Much of Oklahoma’s population is made up of at-risk demographics, including Native Americans, servicemen/women and veterans. It doesn’t help that this population is spread out over a largely rural area, often enhancing one’s feelings of loneliness and isolation. Okla-

Groups like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Wellness Now Coalition have been trying for years to erase the stigma surrounding suicide, to make discussion of it public and supportive, rather than controversial and, as is sometimes the case, judgmental. There’s a noteworthy gender gap in suicides, not just nationally, but across the world. In the US, men are committing suicide at nearly four times the rate of women, while women are reportedly three times as likely to attempt it. Of course, factors like socioeconomic status and divorce also play significant roles, but in all cases men are more at risk than women. Both genders’ mental wellness follows a U-shaped-curve through their lifespans, hitting its lowest point as people reach middleage. Adults in their middle age, especially today, are caught between two very different generations: their more traditional, old-fash-

“The suicide rates in Tulsa and Oklahoma are the product of much greater, more abstract issues.” homa’s high poverty rate instills in many a feeling of financial insecurity, a leading cause of suicide. Finally, Oklahomans have relatively easy access to firearms and opioid prescriptions.

ioned parents, and their individualistic, progressive children. This creates an identity crisis that can leave people feeling trapped or lost. Some analysts argue this feeling is especially prevalent in male populations.

What all of this means is that the suicide rates in Tulsa and Oklahoma are the product of much greater, more abstract issues. While discussing suicide and, more importantly, combatting its stigma, can be beneficial in preventing more deaths, there needs to be a larger discussion on the public’s well-being. Sometimes victims of suicide are unhappy with their work, or even unable to provide for themselves or their family. They’re living in poverty or, in the case of veterans, they’ve left war with mental or physical disabilities. In every case of suicide, the victim is inherently also the killer, but it is desperation that drove them there. Public forums, events spreading awareness and suicide hotlines will always help, but to see a significant drop in suicide rates, it will take nothing less than a wide range of financial and emotional support systems. The student in my school who attempted suicide had been bullied and teased by his classmates for years, with an abusive father and ignorant mother to boot. Ironically, I counted myself an aid to his prevention when I’d often contributed to the teasing. It is not enough for us to combat suicide with awareness events and hotlines. There also must be a significant effort in finding and fighting its causes.

23 January 2017

Commentary

The Collegian: 9

BuzzFeed’s low standards affect national dialogue

BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unverified information defaming Donald Trump shows a complete disregard for journalistic integrity. Justin Guglielmetti Student Writer

It was a report that read like something out of a Tom Clancy thriller, only the critics probably would have panned the thing for being too unrealistic. Donald Trump, a man who had already shattered all notions of conventional political wisdom and become the most controversial figure on the planet, was now being implicated as something close to a real-life Manchurian Candidate, engaging in all manner of unethical, illegal and downright treasonous activities with the Russian government. Just some of the many accusations levied against the president-elect in the 35-page dossier included coordination with Vladimir Putin to take down Hillary Clin-

face no consequences for the actions described in that stranger-than-fiction report. The reason? It might just be fiction after all. Yes, it appears that 2016, the year of “Fake News,” may have only been a primer for what we can expect over the next four years. You see, the dossier was not leaked to the public by a hacker or disillusioned government official, but rather released by a major internet news outlet: Buzzfeed. After months of being subjected to blatantly false independent propaganda websites that show up on your grandparents’ Facebook feeds (the Fake News of the right) and narrativedriven, selective reporting in the media (primarily the Fake News of the left), we now have a mainstream news site shirking all notion of journalistic integrity and publishing a totally unsubstantiated, single-sourced report for the world to see. To be fair, the dossier appears to be something far more credible than the 4chan trolljob than some of Trump’s most ardent backers are claiming it to be; Christopher Steele, the alleged author of the report, is a wellregarded ex-MI6 agent, and the intelligence community thought enough of his findings to compile a short summary which was then presented to Trump and President Obama (a story broken by CNN). Still, not one of the claims against Trump and the Kremlin has been independently verified, either by an intelligence agency or the media. Simply stat-

about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the US government.” Yeah, to hell with the truth and libel laws, just get everything out there and let people decide for themselves which rumors they ought to believe! Regardless of what you think of Trump as a person or as a president, whether or not you feel that your fears over the prospect of his administration have been validated with

“We rely on our media not to be arbiters of morality, but to present us with the facts so we are an informed electorate.” this report, I implore you to see just how fundamentally unethical Buzzfeed’s decision was. We rely on our media not to be arbiters of morality, but to present us with the facts so that we are an informed electorate, capable of making reasonable political decisions. Obviously not every person can be expected to pay close attention to the news or to make an impartial decision (it is well within their rights to remain ignorant) and there will always be nuts out there who propagate conspiracy theories and other falsehoods in order to demonize the other side. However, because this is the case, it is all the more essential that influential, “legitimate” media outlets retain an allegiance to the truth. A strong and (relatively) unbiased

courtesy Wikipedia

BuzzFeed’s place as a major online news outlet only exacerbates the issue of publishing information without verifying it beforehand.

ton in exchange for ignoring Russia’s belligerence in eastern Europe and the Middle East, sharing money and intelligence with Russian oligarchs and throwing lavish extramarital sex parties intended to symbolically defecate on President Obama’s legacy. All of it sounded pretty damning, and easily grounds for impeachment (if not indictment) once Trump took office. Yet here we are two weeks later. President Trump is firmly ensconced in the White House, and you can bet that at least for the time being, he will

ed, there is no reason as of yet to believe any of the content is true beyond a reasonable doubt, which should be enough for a news organization to refrain from reporting. And in case you are thinking that the publication might have been a mistake, or perhaps that Buzzfeed’s journalists had received some confirmation from a source that they are protecting, think again. The website’s editor, Ben Smith, said himself that “there is serious reason to doubt the allegations,” and that his reasons for publishing were so “Americans can make up their own minds

to describe a large part of the Republican base at the moment) would fail to question some of Trump’s more radical ideas. But that is not what informed people mean when they say to “give him a chance!” Rather, they mean that the left should be opposing Trump in the political arena instead of attempting to demonize and delegitimize him at every turn. Scrutinizing some of Trump’s more questionable cabinet picks isn’t just

media is one of the most important elements of our democracy and what Buzzfeed did seeks to undermine that pillar. The subtext of Buzzfeed’s document dump is of course a continuation of the left’s ceaseless assault on Donald Trump; the dossier might as well have been released with a #NotMyPresident at the end of it. Will there be no end to this? Look, I will never say that Democrats need to just kneel down and accept everything that President Trump proposes. Only a sycophant (which, unfortunately, is a word that can be used

the responsible thing to do, it should be an opportunity to reach across the aisle, since there are plenty of traditional conservatives who view Trump and his gang of alt-right supporters as a bigger threat to their principles than the left ever was. Yet instead, when an openly biased leftist organization like Buzzfeed commits an act so brazenly designed to engender distrust in the new administration, all they accomplish is to take the focus off of legitimate criticisms and invalidate them by association, as well as to further the political discord that is tearing our country apart. Lest I sound like Chicken Little, I don’t think the sky is falling, at least not yet. Things were looking pretty dicey in November when news outlets were giving Hillary Clinton a 90+ percent chance of winning off of information from polls that look ever more dubious, but there is in fact a silver lining to be found in this Buzzfeed should-be scandal. The complete dossier had purportedly been circulating around the intelligence community and media for several months, and there was enough journalistic integrity in all of these organizations sans Buzzfeed to not publish something that they knew they could not independently verify (CNN reported limited specifics in its story about the two-page synopsis given to Obama and Trump). Because of that fact, and because I like to remain optimistic, I will hope that Buzzfeed is an outlier in the media, and that news executives out there still believe that they are serving a public interest in reporting the truth, not what they and their audience want the truth to be. If not, and this becomes the norm? Better buckle your seatbelts, because the polarization will only be on track to get worse.

Proposed alcohol tax an answer to Okla. care budget

State Rep. Forrest Bennett’s proposed five percent tax toward the state’s health care fund is an excellent way to support impoverished Oklahomans. Kayleigh Thesenvitz Social Media Manager On Jan. 12, State Rep. Forrest Bennett (D), tweeted “I’m introducing a bill that would dedicate a small portion of revenue from alcohol sales to healthcare services for the un- & under-insured.” Because the 2017 legislative session hasn’t started yet, the bill is far from being introduced to the floor. However, Bennett is confident in the bill and said, “I believe in providing an adequate safety net for the most vulnerable in our state, and I think that revenue brought in through alcohol sales is a good way to fund it.” As of now there is an additional sales tax, known as an excise tax, on low-point beer (0.5 to 3.2 percent) in accordance with Title 37-163.3. The cost of that tax is determined by a flat rate of $11.25 for every barrel, calculated proportionally for the volume sold. There is also a gross receipt tax, which is a tax on the gross revenue of the sold product levied on the seller, of 13.5 percent on the total gross receipts of anyone who holds a mixed beverage license. The wording of Title 37-576 specifies that the state takes the gross receipts for “the sale, preparation or service of mixed

beverages; the total retail value of complimentary or discounted mixed beverages; [any] ice or nonalcoholic beverages that are sold, prepared or served for the purpose of being mixed with alcoholic beverages and consumed on the premises where the sale, preparation or service occurs; and any charges for the privilege of admission to a mixed beverage establishment which entitle a person to complimentary mixed beverages or discounted prices for mixed beverages.” The definition of mixed beverages for the purpose of this legislation is “one or more servings of a beverage composed in whole or in part of an alcoholic beverage in a sealed or unsealed container of any legal size for consumption on the premises where served or sold by the holder of a mixed beverage, beer and wine, caterer, public event, charitable event or special event license.” The gross receipts tax is collected in addition to the excise tax, the general sales tax of the state of Oklahoma and any municipal or county sales taxes that may apply. And, as of now, according to Title 37576.1, “All revenues generated from the gross receipts tax levied pursuant to [everything mentioned above] shall be paid to the State Treasurer and placed to the credit of the General Revenue Fund of the State of Oklahoma.” This is the part of the legislation Bennett hopes to change with his bill. According to Bennett, his bill would take five percent of the revenue from the mixed beverages tax and divert it “from the general revenue fund and into a protected fund that would hopefully bring some financial relief to hospitals and community health centers.” Bennett notes that “community health centers offer services to everyone, and some offer it on a sliding scale based on income as well as free services for those living below the poverty level. It costs them the same to administer health screenings and other procedures no matter how much their patients can pay. ”Bennett shared that “there are 90+ com-

munity health centers in Oklahoma that are funded partially with private money, partially with federal grants and partially with state funds.” The revenue generated by this bill would replace state funds that were taken away due to budget constraints.

5%

Care Fund

General Fund Five percent of the alcohol tax would go to the 90+ health centers supported by public funds. graphic by Caitlyn San Pablo

It’s a worthy cause, but the question remains, will it be effective? Will it be enough? According to the annual report of the Oklahoma Tax Commission for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016, Oklahoma collected over $117.6 million on all beverage taxes and licenses. Of that total, about $53 million came from the mixed beverages gross receipts tax. If this bill had been in place this year only $2.6 million would have gone to community health. Luckily, other recent legislation like SB 383 and SQ 792 are projected to significantly increase alcohol sales in the state by making alcohol more readily available to more people more often. The OTC’s fiscal impact statement for SB 383 projects that by fiscal year 2020 there will be a $2,553,000 estimated increase in beer excise taxes along with an $43,776,000 increase in mixed beverage gross receipts tax. “Unfortunately, due to the number of people living in poverty in our state and the health problems associated with poverty, this fund isn’t going to solve all of our problems. But it would offer us an opportunity to raise protected funds, and help to chip in where we can so that health centers can continue to offer services to those in need,” Bennett said. For now Oklahoma’s primary concern is fixing its immediate budget crisis, and so this bill will be effective in mitigating the impact on Oklahoma’s poorest citizens. This bill is going to be a necessary appendage to keep community health centers functioning, but it also sheds light on other concerns. One concern is that if the legislator passes this bill, they won’t take any further steps toward improving healthcare in the state until the budget issues are fixed. Another concern is that the amount of revenue collected may not be enough to cancel out the long term health concerns of increased alcohol consumption among the general public. However, as of now, this bill receives my Liberal Seal of Approval™.

Variety

the Collegian: 10

23 January 2017

Tulsa creative writers meet to exchange tips, encouragement The Tulsa Night Writers meet monthly in a warm environment for mentorship and inspiration. Claudia Conaway Student Writer The Tulsa Night Writers consist of writers from nearly every genre, lifestyle and writing level. They meet on the third Tuesday of every month at the Allee Beth Martin East Regional Library auditorium at 7 p.m. I attended last week’s meeting, and was taken aback by the warmth the members expressed towards me and the dedication the leaders of the group seemed to have towards the improvement of the writers. The current president, Joshua Danker-Dake, is a writer, editor and blogger. Looking at the approximately 40 people around me, I saw a majority of them were either middle-aged or older adults. Danker-Dake, standing at the front of the room, spoke to the group with a somewhat youthful energy, however, about changes to the group’s social media pages and continuing the group’s “Accountability Program.” I soon found out that this is a program where two members team up once a week for a month to encourage and to be encouraged in terms of writing projects. DankerDake also introduced this year’s focus for the group, which is “how to tell stories better and make them more compelling.”

Before leaving the podium, he introduced new members into the Night Writers Hall of Fame, including 30 year member Jackie King. King studied journalism at OU and is the author of several books and short stories. She thanked the group by saying, “It was the last thing I expected. It’s a huge honor.” The current vice president of the group, Donna Jones, commanded the room after DankerDake spoke. Jones is the author of the Sheriff Lexie Wolfe novels and “Unbreak Their Hearts,” a book focusing on the abuse of women. She spoke about the meaning of failure, the meaning of success and how to create goals for one’s writing projects. Jones anecdotally said that she once considered success to be finishing a piece of writing and sending it out, whether or not that writing got published. Mentioning the prevalence of introversion in writing communities, Jones warned that procrastination on projects and goals can be a fear of not only failure, but also success, when writers fear having to go public or write more for a larger audience. Jones supplied the group with printed fill-it-in-yourself outlines for every member’s 2017 writing goals and opened the discussion of writing and goal achievement tips up to the group. King commented while the group filled out their outlines, saying, “Everyone has their own style and voice. Write the truth as you see it.”

photo courtesy TulsaNightWriters.wordpress.com

The NightWriters meet once a month, but designated pairs are meant to communicate in between meetings.

The meeting lasted about an hour, but the conversations between the members seemed to continue past closing time. People congregated around each other even after they were dismissed, talking about the topics of the meeting, discussing individual projects, or asking about family and friends. During the meeting, every guest gave a short introduction about themselves and afterwards, I had about six people ask me more about myself and most of them had

recommendations on who to talk to about my writing interests. Tulsa Night Writers seems to be more than just a gathering of local writing enthusiasts; it’s also a support group and a family for those who long to create and to share with other creative people. Although it seemed to be largely beneficial to those who no longer have, say, a liberal arts university to supply them with creative spaces, it was refreshing as a college student to be surrounded by writers that are older than I am and that have dif-

ferent lifestyles than I do. Listening to the ideas and the works of the stay-at-home moms and dads, businesswomen and men and many-times-published authors and editors gave me a perspective and wisdom that a college-aged group couldn’t have supplied. The group is going to host an event on March 6 where publishers will meet and talk with its members. There will be a Q&A session, and it would probably be an opportune time for any curious Tulsan to try out the organization.

“Interfaith” attendees honor many beliefs, share one meal Trenton Gibbons Variety Editor Last Saturday, the University of Tulsa had its first ever Interfaith Dinner, hosted in the upper floor of ACAC. The event, as the name suggests, was meant to be an opportunity for members of different faiths to not just enjoy a meal together, but discuss the similarities and differences in their beliefs. Participants registered at a desk with their name, email and, though it wasn’t required, their faith. The event’s organizers used this information to create some variety at the tables, unafraid to split up groups of friends if they all belonged to the same religion or denomination. At my table, religions included Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. From Christianity, there was one Catholic and another Lutheran, with two more of us having been raised in the Christian faith but now subscribing to agnosticism. At first, discussion had little to do with re-

ligion at all, and more to do with our homes, majors and jobs. After prayers representing each — or at least, most — of the religions in the room, we were finally allowed to eat. Throughout the meal, songs, rites and other acts were performed on stage by different associations. Among them, the Malaysian Student Association sang a song in honor of their mothers, the Jewish man from my table performed a spoken-word piece on his yamaka and his Jewish identity, and a video was shown of a recently deceased Muskogee man speaking on his faith. Once the performances were done, the event led into some scheduled discussion, which for the most part was light and interesting. There were a few prewritten prompts, but for the most part dinner guests improvised in conversation. Despite a somewhat underwhelming turnout, the discussion was informative, the air comfortable and friendly, and the event was a success.

Andrew Spector performs a spoken-word piece regarding the effect his beliefs have on his identity.

Participants, organizers and performers alike belonged to a variety of faiths, and yet the dinner managed to feel totally undivisive.

photos by Luke Lau

Variety

23 January 2017

“Indians Illustrated”: The historychanging effects of the media Communication professor John Coward gave a lecture on his newest book, “Indians Illustrated,” which explores the depiction of Native Americans by the pictorial press. Trenton Gibbons Variety Editor photo courtesy Special Collections

Pictured above are gifts from James Joyce to fellow author Paul Leon.

Special Collections: Weird and Wonky

Special Collections’ current exhibit is meant to display their odd, miscellaneous and unique items. Claudia Conaway Student Writer

Special Collections, up on the fifth floor of McFarlin, is home to a truly special collection brought together by graduate assistants Jennifer Murphy, Amanda Vestal and Hannah Johnson. The “Weird and Wonky” exhibit is a showing of “some of the stranger items” in TU’s collections and will be open from now until March 26. The exhibit includes donations from the Anna Kavan Papers, the Vann Family Archive, the Terlton Time Capsule of 1923, the Walt Whitman Ephemera and various other collections. Tulsa businessman John W. Schleppey donated several artifacts in 1975, including miniature playing cards for a dollhouse, a bag of rocks, a “Pleasure Chest of Steaks Club” pin, two embroidered textiles and an ornate chocolate box are on display. Items dating back to 1875 from the Vann Family, a Cherokee family who settled in Indian Territory Oklahoma in the mid-1800s, include a meat cleaver, a pair of children’s shoes, a box of dominoes and a set of dentures made from human teeth. The metal Terlton Time Capsule showcases the the June 26, 1923 issue of the Tulsa World and personal photographs from that same year. There is an extravagant 19th century sword detailing a naked woman atop an impressive dragon from the Ellis Clark Soper Collection. One

the Collegian: 11

of the most interesting parts of the exhibit comes from the Anna Kavan papers. Kavan, a heroin addict for most of her adult life, had been using the four used hypodermic needles that can be found on display now as staples to hold her papers together. A large portion of the exhibit showcases circus memorabilia from the Lois Johnson Circus Collection. A ticket to a 1935 Ripley’s Believe it or Not show and an official tour list and ticket for a 1920s Ringling Brothers show are on display. There are also vintage visitor tickets to the circus and rule books for cooks and and performing employees of the Ringling Brothers and the Diano Brothers. Writer memorabilia can also be found in this exhibit, including F. Scott Fitzgerald’s death certificate from 1940, Walt Whitman’s personalized envelopes and a ticket to his 1880 speech on Abraham Lincoln, and a giftset given from James Joyce to Paul Leon consisting of a blue and white striped tie and a porcelain lion. Special Collections says that a good portion of these items “were haphazardly thrown in with large donations without much explanation for their presence.” Seeing these artifacts up close, from the relatively normal vintage finds to the strange and personal items, reminded me of the “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” rule. The collection only took me about 20 minutes to look through and appreciate, so if you’re rushed for time between classes but want to experience the weirder things in life in a quiet and antiquated room, check the exhibit out Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Last Thursday, Communication Professor John Coward gave a lecture, a word he admitted incites “fear and perhaps drowsiness,” on his newest book, “Indians Illustrated.” The book falls in line with his primary topic of research, the 19th century depiction of Native Americans. In particular, “Indians Illustrated” is focused on the portrayal of Native Americans in images, not just stories. As an institution, the American pictorial press had a brief existence. Existing between the rise in demand for images in print media and the ability to easily mass-print actual photographs, the pictorial press was at its peak in the late 19th century. As the interest of its readers shifted, so too did the press’ focus. This meant that when Americans were embracing the notion of manifest destiny, publications began running illustrations on the frontier, Native Americans included. These illustrations subscribed to one of two Native American

stereotypes of the time: the noble savage or the demonic, animalistic Indian. Professor Coward exemplified the “Noble Savage” in an illustration depicting a Native American man grappling with a falcon for its feathers. The feathers, according to the illustration’s caption, were intended to draw the “admiration of some dusky coquette of the forest.” Native American women, meanwhile, fell into the categories of the “princess” or the squaw. Prof. Coward gave Pocahontas as the perfect example of the princess, innocent and mysterious. The squaw, on the other hand, was exemplified in an illustration of an old, crippled woman. She, according to the illustration’s description, had been made a beggar because her tribe had abandoned her when they’d gone on the warpath. While this was known to occur, it was a rare event, and the lack of specificity in its recount made it seem a common occurrence. It was one of many ways to paint Native Americans with a broad, excusatory brush. Variations in the tribes were erased by print media until the Indians as a whole were made more alike than different. One such image claimed to “illustrate scenes which occur in the life of every red man.” Illustrations based off of photographs should have been able to accurately capture Native Americans, but editors and illustrators took liberties in their portraits. Edits included settings

A rare example of an illustration portraying indians in a sympathetic, human light.

being switched from interior, “civilized” areas to wild, “savage” settings. Headdresses would be larger, and more comical. Advanced items or objects indicating some integration into colonial society would be removed from the image entirely. Often the only thing left wholly untouched was the Indians’ hardened expressions, a product of the time’s photographic methods, which inadvertently helped to reinforce the stereotype of the “stoic indian.” Coward ended his lecture with a look at more ambiguous examples of Native American illustrations. Some publications, for example, might provide a menacing, sensational picture to draw the reader in, but counter it with written text that offered a more sympathetic narrative. Another, more specific example was a drawing of two Native American men racing canoes down a river. It was strange to see Native Americans performing normal, everyday tasks; it was even stranger to see them at play. The image was accompanied by a caption crediting the racers with “marvelous dexterity few white men would ever attain.” It was not a perfect depiction, or even a fully accurate one, Coward pointed out. But it was nevertheless harmless. According to the professor, if the media’s depiction of Native Americans had been taken on with a “fair, balanced, and nuanced” approach, there might exist today an entirely different history of Native American populations.

photo courtesy Wikipedia

Restaurant mixes Peruvian ingredients with Cantonese cooking

Pachac Peruvian offers Tulsa a taste of chifa cuisine for those interested in trying something new. Michaela Flonard News Editor

Pachac Peruvian Food opened in West Tulsa last November. The restaurant, located in a strip mall, specializes in chifa cuisine, even though Google labels it as Chinese. Chifa cuisine blends traditional Peruvian ingredients with Chinese Cantonese cooking. The cuisine arose when Cantonese Chinese immigrated to Peru in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Cantonese Chinese cooking is evident in the wontons and stir fries in Pachac’s menu, while Peruvian ingredients like aji chili peppers and yams were also used. The Peruvian or Chinese influences weren’t evident in the decor, which had a number of stylized celebrity portraits, Elvis included. Almost any type of taste bud would be satisfied at this restaurant. Categories on the dinner menu include: beef, stir fried, soup, chicken, fish and fried rice. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot for vegetarians or vegans, and nothing was labeled as gluten free. Along with the standard soda offerings, the restaurant also offers Chicha Morada, a purple corn

drink that, regrettably, none of us ended up trying. Of note as well: desserts are only offered on Saturday and Sunday. For those with allergies like one of our friends, soybean oil is used in preparing almost every dish. We chose not to order any appetizers, instead going straight for the main course. This plan worked out for some of us who had dishes large enough for leftovers. Our server informed us that because every dish was freshly prepared, it might take some time to get our orders. It did. But when we got them, we were all surprised by what we had ordered. Without pictures of the options, our unfamiliarity with the cuisine had meant we weren’t entirely sure how our orders, which we couldn’t even pronounce, would be served. The Ceviche de Pescado offered one of the few safe choices for our soybean-allergic friend, and the server said she ate such a dish almost every night. Ceviche

is a type of seafood dish where fresh raw fish is cured with citrus juices. At Pachac lime juice is used, which gives the fish a strong, almost overpowering flavor. As someone not used to this dish, I could only eat a few bites. The fish was slightly squishy, and accompanied by yams, Peruvian corn, and potatoes. As for myself, I went with the Aji de Gallina, a dish with boiled, shredded chicken, creamy milk, potatoes and a Peruvian yellow pepper sauce. When mixed with the rice it was served with, the dish became a thick, creamy, yellow fulfilling mixture. While I didn’t favor the addition of a hardboiled egg and black olive, this was due to personal preference. The yellow pepper sauce had an indistinct, yet slightly spicy flavor, but the creaminess of the mixture made it something I could envision as my new favorite comfort food. Both other attendees decided to try out items from the stir-fried

category. One got Tallarin Saltado con Pollo, or stir fried chicken with linguini. The use of linguini in a stir fry was a unique choice, but the dish tasted nevertheless familiar. Lomo Saltado consisted of french fries in a stir fry with beef. This choice lost the crispiness I favor from my fries, but did add to the saltiness and overall umami

Many of the dishes were somewhat familiar, but varying ingredients and cooking methods helped to make each dish unique.

flavor of the dish. Tuesday through Sunday the restaurant serves lunch and dinner. For those interested in trying something new but also saving a buck, $6.99 lunch specials are offered daily from a select few of their dishes. Otherwise, the prices averaged somewhere around $812 for dinner.

photos by Michaela Flonard

Sports

The Collegian: 12

23 January 2017

Women’s basketball falls to bleacher UConn, knocks off UCF creature Justin Guglielmetti is…

the

The women’s basketball team lost We don’t deserve him at his Bestbrook to the best team in the country, On Thursday, the NBA announced the but rebounded with their second starters for the 2017 All-Star game, and for conference win over Central the most part, the selections are pretty deFlorida during the weekend. fensible. Thanks to a new provision in which fan voting only counts for 50 percent (the other 50 percent being split evenly between current players and a media panel), we were able to avoid a situation like Yao Ming starting after sitting out the whole season, or 2016 Kobe Bryant starting because he was playing like 2016 Kobe Bryant. And thank God the players and media curtailed the votes from the country of Georgia and stepped in to make sure the immortal Zaza Pachulia didn’t get the nod. How competitive could the game really have been if Zaza had been out there scoring 100 points and dunking from halfcourt? Still, let’s take this time to remember that All-Star selections are the bastard cousins of All-NBA spots, since they are ultimately much more about popularity than actual performance. You would think that the MVP candidate averaging a triple-double and leading his undermanned team to a 25–19 record after losing its franchise player could crack the top two guards in his conference, but you would be wrong. Russell Westbrook apparently just doesn’t hit enough deep threes to displace Stephen Curry, who might just be having his weakest season in four years. Go ahead, keep giving this guy more of a reason to have a chip on his shoulder. Maybe after he starts dropping 50–15–20 on a daily basis, he’ll finally get the respect he deserves outside Oklahoma.

Matt Rechtien Sports Editor

The women’s basketball team faced off against the top team in the country, the UConn Huskies, who were fresh from breaking their early 2000s record of most consecutive wins in NCAA basketball. The Huskies took an early lead, and outscored the Golden Hurricane in all four quarters to take a 98–58 win. Tulsa found themselves in an early hole, as the Huskies ran to a 14–0 lead. The Golden Hurricane missed their first eight shots and couldn’t get into an offensive rhythm, the same problem they’ve had for the last couple of games. Freshman Shug Dickson hit a 3-pointer at 5:03 to break Tulsa’s scoring drought, and the final five minutes saw the teams put up 32 total points. UConn shot 10–16, while the Golden Hurricane only managed 6–17 from the field. Dickson hit another three to start the second-quarter, bringing the score to 30–19.

courtesy Heavy

If you change Rodgers’ quote from last week it works really well here. “Run from the table.”

Monday

Justin Guglielmetti Sports Writer Baseball writers are more stupid than you think they are. Okay, maybe that’s not totally fair, but they are disproportionately crotchety old sabermetrics-phobic men who are more concerned with waxing nostalgic about the good ol’ days of yore than appreciating the accomplishments of the stars of the present. This manifests itself most prominently in the great PED debate, which questions whether players who used steroids should be allowed into the Hall of Fame because they “ruined the integrity of the game” and made certain counting stat accomplishments less indicative of greatness. How could we possibly enshrine these vile cheaters alongside hallowed titans of the game like Ty Cobb (a violent bigot who routinely spiked his opponents and intimidated umpires) and Willie Mays (who, along with many stars of the ‘60s, used amphetamines to enhance performance)? I think you can tell where I stand on this issue. Anyway, whether because writers just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a muscular guy who played in the ‘90s — even though he was never implicated in taking steroids — or because he only played 15 years in the toughest offensive park in the league and fell 51 homers short of 500, it took Jeff Bagwell a full seven years on the ballot to finally make the Hall. With apologies to Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire and Frank Thomas, Bagwell was the best first baseman of his era, a top five all time at the position, and quite possibly the most underrated player in baseball history. It’s a travesty that he didn’t get in sooner,

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The Knights battled back and throughout the first three quarters of play, the two teams traded the lead.

Tulsa put the game away in the third quarter, outscoring the Knights 27–20 to win 73–62. Dickson (20), junior Erika Wakefield (17) and junior Ebony Park (15) led the way for the Golden Hurricane. Head coach Matilda Mossman talked about Dickson — who has led the Golden Hurricane in points for the last three games, putting up over 20 in each of them — after the game. “I think Shug’s development over the course of the season has been huge and that has been evident in the last three games. She was tremendous today handling pressure and getting off great shots. I think Tyjae’ [Scales] is the unsung hero because she played 22 minutes and although her stat line doesn’t show it she was a big presence. She defended well and kept her player from getting rebounds.” The win puts their overall record at 6–13 and their American Athletic Conference Record at 2–4. The Golden Hurricane will travel to New Orleans (12–6) this week to take on Tulane, before returning to host Southern Methodist University (11–8) on Sunday.

Bagwell, Pudge and Raines enter HOF

The baseball world announced the newest members of Cooperstown last week. While these players Mo’ Munn-y, mo’ problems should be celebrated, the current The sports world is filled with phony system still has a good number of scandals, mostly because no matter how problems. macho and competitive you claim to be, everyone loves a little drama. Sometimes the phony scandals get blown out of proportion and become issues on a national stage (something about a New England football team deflating some balls. Huh, I can’t remember. Must have been the Revolution), but most of the time they just take up space in the talking head shows before the next big game. We’ve got a couple going on in the NFL right now, with Aaron Rodgers and his wife apparently being estranged from his family because he didn’t appear at a family dinner on the Bachelorette, and Mike Tomlin caught on Antonio Brown’s Facebook live stream calling the Patriots “a--holes.” Of these two, can we make a pact to care more about the former? Donald Trump just took office, if we want a vulgar live mic story we have one for the next four years. 2017 Aaron Rodgers is the most terrifying opposing quarterback I’ve ever seen and I need to know that he’s not perfect, that he can in fact fail at something. Get him on with Skip Bayless and let that old geezer go to town. Why doesn’t your family trust Olivia Munn? Is she a secret scientologist? Does she think that X-Men: Apocalypse was a quality film worthy of Oscar recognition? What are you hiding, Rodgers???

The Huskies would only go on to outscore the Golden Hurricane by eight points in the second quarter, as junior Liesl Spoerl and sophomore Tatyana Perez hit threes to bring the score to 55–33 at the end of the first half. The 33 points were the second most points that UConn has allowed in the first half in the entire season — behind the 34 that Ohio State, Notre Dame and Florida State put up. The third quarter saw the Huskies outscore the Golden Hurricane 29–13. Tulsa went through another scoreless run that started in the middle of the third quarter, which ended midway through the final quarter. The Golden Hurricane held UConn to only 14 points in the last quarter, but the Huskies had taken most of their starters out of the game at that point, and put in their second stringers. While a forty-point loss is a tough pill to swallow there are two things to take from the loss. This was the most points that UConn had given up in its five conference games that it has played so far, and Tulsa is a very young team — eight of thirteen players are freshmen or sophomores — meaning they have a promising future to look forward to. After the loss the Golden Hurricane traveled to Orlando to take on UCF. This time Tulsa was the one to jump out to an early lead, starting the game off with a 10–0 run.

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No Events No Events

Wednesday 25

Men’s Basketball @ East Carolina 6:00 p.m. Women’s Basketball @ Tulane 7:00 p.m.

but hey, better late than never! Speaking of travesties, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens once again failed to crack even the top five of voting despite being arguably the greatest hitter and pitcher of all time. Seriously, this can’t be emphasized enough: these aren’t just greats, they are players of the highest caliber. I don’t care if they take up two spots on the American sports PED Mt. Rushmore (alongside Lance Armstrong and A-Rod). Simply going off ability, Bonds can’t be listed separately from the likes of Ruth,

metrics, Raines offered Henderson-lite onbase ability and gap power while stealing bases at a more efficient rate (84.7 percent to be exact, the highest percentage ever for a player with 400 or more attempts). In a 1980s that was devoid of all-time great talent, Raines accumulated the highest WAR in the National League over the decade. Somehow, it took the BBWAA a full ten years, the maximum time someone can spend on the ballot before becoming ineligible, to make the right call on Raines. A couple more notes: Trevor Hoffman

“Baseball writers are more stupid than you think they are.” Mays or Williams; Clemens from Johnson, Grove or Koufax. It’s an insult to the game for these players to be blacklisted from the Hall, but at least they both cracked 50 percent for the first time. And another player’s induction may be a sign that their luck is finally about to change in the coming years. Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez is another guy who has a legitimate claim to the title of best all-time at his position. Synonymous with excellence behind the plate, Rodriguez won an MVP in 1999 and snagged 13 Gold Gloves at catcher over his career. It shouldn’t be at all surprising that he is a first-ballot inductee except that he is another star who was linked to steroids in his prime. Pudge’s name isn’t as infamous as Bonds’ or Clemens,’ but if he can make it, surely there is room in the near future for players even better than he was. Also entering the Hall of Fame in 2017 is Tim Raines, the Montreal Expos dynamo who could give Jeff Bagwell a run for his money in that Most Underrated Player Award I just gave out two minutes ago. Consistently overshadowed by the greatest leadoff hitter and most prolific base-stealer in history, Rickey Henderson, and playing about 20 years too soon for the extent of his abilities to be fully realized through saber-

Thursday

missed the cut by one percentage point in his second year on the ballot. He’ll make it in 2018 and be the first Hall of Famer to have spent his entire major league career exclusively as a reliever. I feel like Curt Schilling was hurt by his outspoken political opinions and brazen personality as much as Bonds and Clemens were by their steroid use. Schilling did enough to make the Hall even if he never played in October, and on top of that he might just be the best postseason pitcher ever. It’s a farce that David Ortiz will almost certainly make it in on his first or second try when it’s looking increasingly likely that Edgar Martinez, his spiritual predecessor at DH who lowkey had a much more impressive regular season career, will miss altogether. Maybe it’s the homer in me, but I was sad to see Jorge Posada fail to reach the requisite five percent in order to stay on the ballot. It was unlikely that he was ever going to make it, but only one year of eligibility doesn’t feel right for a guy who could make a pretty strong case for being the best catcher of the 2000s.

Jan 23 – 29

26

No Events

Saturday

Friday

27

Men’s Tennis vs. Kentucky Track and Field @ Big Ten Challenge

Men’s 28 Basketball vs. UCF 12:30 p.m. Women’s Basketball vs. SMU 7:00 p.m. Men’s Tennis vs. OU or Columbia Women’s Tennis @ ITA Kickoff

Sunday

29

No Events

23 January 2017

Sports

The Collegian: 13

Men’s basketball continues conference win streak

photos by Dalton Stewart

Clockwise from top left: Redshirt junior TK Edogi slams the ball against Tulane in the 89–82 victory over the Green Wave. Freshman Will Magnay dunks against the Green Wave. In only 11 minutes of play, Magnay had one of the two blocks for the Golden Hurricane. Freshman Martins Igbanu looks for a pass under the hoop in the win. Sophomore guard Sterling Taplin drives to the hoop. Taplin had a career-high 24 points in the win.

The men’s basketball team kept their four-game win streak alive with victories over the Green Wave and the Bulls. Joseph Edmunds Sports Writer Through six games, the Golden Hurricane men’s basketball team boasts a 5–1 record against conference opponents after recording victories this week against Tulane and South Florida. When the Tulane Green Wave came to town, guard Sterling Taplin lead the way with a career high 24 for an offensive explosion for Tulsa. Tulane took a large lead early at 15–3, but Tulsa dominated the rest of the first half to take a 42–28 lead into halftime. They continued the strong shooting performance in the second half to prevent the Green Wave from mounting a comeback. Tulane scored 54 points in the second half,

but Tulsa scored 47 of their own with over 50 percent shooting accuracy to preserve the lead. The Golden Hurricane then travelled to Tampa to take on the South Florida Bulls. In the game, the defense carried the team. While Tulsa still played well on the offensive end, with four players scoring in double figures, the deciding factor in the game was holding the Bulls to only 36 percent shooting from the field for 67 points. Corey Henderson led the way with a career high 22 points for Tulsa, and the final score was 79–67 in favor of TU. After some struggles in non-conference play, Tulsa has gelled together and put up a strong showing at the start of conference play. Their 5–1 conference record is tied for third in the conference with Central Florida, who they face at home next weekend. Tulsa’s next game is on the road against East Carolina on Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m.

Men’s tennis upsets Texas The men’s team finished their fourgame home-stand which included wins over No. 3 Texas, Illinois State and Arkansas Pine Bluff. Matt Rechtien Sports Editor Men’s tennis hosted four matches this week, including two against top-ten opponents Texas and TCU. On Thursday they hosted a doubleheader against Illinois State and Arkansas Pine Bluff. The Golden Hurricane swept both teams 4–0. The doubles partners of Majed Kilani and Or Ram-Harel, as well as Jared Hing and Daniel Santos, are undefeated in play so far this season. In the two matches, the Golden Hurricane had five different players win the six singles points that they needed to secure the sweep in both matches. Kilani, Santos, Okkie Kellerman and Chase Gordon all won their individual matches, while Jarod Hing won two for the Golden Hurricane across the two games. On Friday the Golden Hurricane hosted the No. 4 Texas Longhorns. The match came down to the wire, as the Golden Hurricane took the seventh and final point after Mitchell Pritchard won his match in three sets. Head coach Vince Westbrook talked about Pritchard’s performance after the win.

“My hats off to Mitch Pritchard, who had to take a year off last year after winning the Cal-Berkeley match for us after having to go into surgery and not being able to play the rest of the year. He seems to be back and doing what he does best. At the bottom of the lineup, I think he’s one of the toughest guys in the country.” Hing and Santos kept their unbeaten doubles record as they took the first doubles match, as did Kilani and Ram-Harel, who won the second doubles match giving the Golden Hurricane the doubles point. Ram-Harel, the No. 46 player in the nation, took home the first singles-win for Tulsa, winning 7–6 and 6–2. Westbrook talked about Ram-Harel’s win as well. “If you give the guy [Ram-Harel] a ball anywhere in the mid-court, he’s going to punish you with it. He’s a big, strong guy. As he started pressuring in the tiebreaker, he started to serve better and he started to be able to return and put more balls in the court.” Kilani dropped his first set to No. 36 Yuya Ita, but recovered to win the next two sets. Dominic Bechard, Kellerman and Santos lost their matches, bringing it down to the final match which Pritchard won in three sets. On Sunday afternoon the Golden Hurricane were swept by No. 7 TCU to close out their four-game home-stand. Next is Kentucky in Stillwater in the ITA Kick-Off.

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10/31/16 9:26 AM

23 January 2017

The State-Run Media

the

State-Run media Used “alternative facts” before they went mainstream

Trump arrives to trashed White House

After his inauguration, Trump arrived to a house full of empty beer cans and a passed-out Joe Biden. Adam Lux Professional partier

On January 20 Donald Trump walked into the White House as the official sitting president. However, not everything was as he expected it to be. The first thing President Trump noticed that wasn’t quite right was the floor. “It didn’t feel quite presidential.” he told the State-Run Media. “While the tile was quite nice, if a bit bland, it seemed to be covered in dirt and other… substances.” Whenever he picked up his feet, his shoes seemed to want to stay on the floor. As he peeled his soles off the tile they made an “unsavory sound.” Then he noticed everything else. There were various alcoholic beverages strewn about all over the place. All the couch and seat cushions seemed to be missing. Various lamps and chairs were

knocked over. There was an odd earthy smell in the air. “It was like the Obamas threw a huge party last night and then didn’t bother to clear up. Sad.” said Trump. The Obamas did not respond to our inquiries on the matter. The situation room table had been converted into the most epic beer pong table ever. (The white house tea set was used instead of solo cups.) Pizza boxes littered the Roosevelt Room and there was a pillow fort built in the Blue Room. “When I went into the pillow fort, which was poorly constructed compared to my pillow forts, Joe Biden was sleeping in there with the Medal of Freedom around his forehead,” the new President said. “I told him ‘Get outta here, Joe. You don’t belong here anymore. Go on, get!’” Finally, one of the pillars in the South Portico was painted to look like a giant, orange phallus. “That part I was actually okay with,” said Trump, who also assured us that his hands were a completely normal size.

What kind of introvert are you?

It’s 2017 – by now, you know that you’re an introvert. Thanks to recent advances in personality quiz technology, “scientists” have identified up to 17 different classes of introvert, all of which are special in their own way. What kind of introvert are you? Sam Chott The kind of introvert that likes parties

1. You’re at a party, and you don’t know a lot of people there. What do you do? a) After a little bit, go home and curl up with a good book. You get easily tired of social situations, and you need some time to recharge. b) Just hang out with the people that you know. You aren’t really good at anything in particular, but you’re very loyal to your friends. c) Hover at an altitude between 200 and 4,000 meters. You are composed of water vapor. d) Be the life of the party! You’re great at talking to people, and you even try to make sure that others are having a good time. 2. Do you like just hanging out one-on-one, or with a group of friends? a) One on one! You don’t like large groups, and honestly, sometimes you’d rather hang out with a cat than with a person. b) It doesn’t matter too much. You don’t fit in any other category, so you’re in this one. c) You are often accompanied by smaller cumulus clouds, but you sometimes go all out and join a cold front squall line. d) You love hanging out with large groups! You thrive in the middle of a bunch of different people. 3. Are you ever called an “old soul,” even if you’re in your twenties? a) All the time! You take in a lot of information, so it takes you a long time to react to things.

b) Not really. You don’t really have many distinguishing characteristics, besides being magical. c) No. You usually have a lifetime of a few hours, before you either become a thunderstorm or dissipate into the atmosphere. d) No. You’re so energetic and quick that you might seem younger than you actually are! Mostly A: You are a Reclusive Introvert! You’re a classic introvert. You don’t like hanging around large groups for too long, and even hanging out with close friends can be too much. Never be afraid to leave a party if it’s too much for you, and don’t let people tell you that you’re not good enough as you are – being an introvert is cool now! Mostly B: You are a Hufflepuff! You are part of the most boring Hogwarts house, and honestly, you’re just in this quiz because of a computer error. Were there even any Hufflepuff characters in the books? We probably didn’t see any because they’re introverts, so you’re either an introvert or you just don’t like hanging out with Daniel Radcliffe. Mostly C: You are a CumuloNimbus! You are a dense, towering vertical cloud, usually a sign of atmospheric instability or thunderstorms. You can produce lightning, torrential rain, or even tornadoes, but your good friends know that you’re really just a big softy. You require moisture, an unstable air mass and heat to form – don’t be afraid to ask people to turn off the AC! Mostly D: How dare you, you’re An Extrovert! This isn’t your place. This is for introverts only! You get to be fun at parties and assertive at work, and introverts don’t get anything. I just don’t understand why you would take this quiz, knowing that you’re an extrovert. This is our space. Get out. GET OUT!

Graphic by Elias Brinkman

Student leads protest from comfort of own home Instead of going to a protest, Withens angrily posted on Facebook while watching Netflix.

Rather than joining a cold, boring protest, a TU student decided to spearhead a movement to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration entirely from his La-Z-Boy. Sam Beckmann Skyped into DC

Jonathan Withens, a senior gender studies major, led a protest against the Trump administration during the inauguration ceremony Saturday, all without leaving his apartment. Withens’ protest, selfdescribed as “a multifaceted attack on fascism,” featured a variety of

tactics to express his disapproval of the new president. According to sources, Withens angrily voiced his displeasure to his roommate until he left the apartment, composed a very convincing Facebook post about the ruin that will befall this country over the next four years, and “went on Twitter and just started going ham, retweeting anyone who shared his opinion.” “I just can’t believe that Trump won the election, I don’t see how anyone could possibly agree with him!” Withens told the State-Run Media after looking through his social media accounts, which are comprised primarily of liberals he follows because they agree with him. When asked about this lack

of diversity in opinions, Jonathan pointed out that was in fact still friends with someone from grade school who identified as a Republican, so he had a sufficiently diverse newsfeed. Discussing the impact of his protest, Withens commented “I really hope it inspires others. After seeing the risks and dangers I went through myself, many more may wish to follow in my footsteps and not accept this new administration without a fight.” When asked about what exactly the risks and dangers were, Withens referred to his Facebook posts, which “could lose me a lot of friends.” At press time, the State-Run assumes he is referring to the one Republican he knows.

graphic by Sam Chott

Party animal deletes browser history after studying The State-Run Media was able to obtain exclusive screenshots of Beardman’s browser history.

State-Run investigative reporters have found that a well-known slacker has actually been studying when he tells friends that he’s sleeping off hangovers.

Adam Lux Secretly writes for the student paper Jack “Daniels” Beardman was seen last week quickly deleting his browser history after a harsh three hour-long study session. His friend, who was borrowing Beardman’s computer, asked him why he deleted his history and Beard-

man replied, “It was just, um, porn. Yeah, I was watching porn.” Beardman is known for his enjoyment of parties and devil-maycare attitude about academics. He’s famous for his “Jack Daniels chug” where he chugs five Jack and Cokes from a beer bong. Beardman is a biochemistry major. He often complains to his friends about how hard his classes are and how he usually gets low C’s. “C’s get degrees, am I right,” he told a reporter with the StateRun Media. However, after talking to a few of his professors, it appears that this may be a façade. “Jack is a fantastic student,” his

organic chemistry teacher said in an interview. “He usually has one of the highest grades in the class.” One of Beardman’s other boasts is that he pays for a Chegg account and uses the solution manuals provided. However, after a check of his account, it turns out he’s one of the top answer providers for chemistry and biology questions in the “Ask an Expert” section. After revealing this information to some of Beardman’s friends they said that he “should be proud of his academic accomplishments,” and that “he can still chug like 5 Jack and Cokes in 25 seconds, and that’s pretty cool.”