11 September 2017

a student newspaper of the university of tulsa

september 11, 2017 issue 3 ~ volume 103

Brenda Tracy

A story to end sexual assault Registered nurse, single mom, rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy shared her story to encourage students to intervene when they see potential cases of sexual assault. Trigger Warning: the following article contains graphic depictions of sexual content. Managing Editor Michaela Flonard reports. Last Tuesday, Brenda Tracy came to tell her story at TU and encourage discussion and action in the community. Since revealing herself as the “Jane Doe” in the 1998 Oregon State University rape case, Tracy has begun activist work, including speaking at different venues. Held in Lorton Performance Center, about 350 to 400 students attended her talk, mostly athletes with some Greek life and various other students. Dr. Derrick Gragg, the Vice President and Director of Athletes, was the original proponent of bringing Tracy to campus, and the event was moderated by Violence Prevention Program Director Kelsey Hancock. Tracy began the night with a challenge. As the single mom of two sons, ages 23 and 24, she asked the audience “to think about what it would be like if you were my son or daughter and you were sitting there and I was up here, telling my story.” Her Story In 1998, right before the incident occurred, Tracy was a single mom, after recently divorcing her children’s father, and had just started dating an OSU football player. Her best friend, Karmen McFadden, was also dating an OSU player, and one night, asked Tracy to attend a house party with her. The party was attended by McFadden’s boyfriend, her boyfriend’s brother, his friend and another player. At the party, Tracy was offered a drink, but said she initially refused, because she “grew up in an alcoholic home and because of my children’s father. I didn’t like alcohol and I needed to be in control of my surroundings at all times.” But as the night persisted, the others insisted she drink, saying she would be safe and could crash on the couch. About 20 minutes after sipping some of her drink, Tracy said, “I started feeling warm inside, like hot from the inside out. I remember thinking, ‘Am I getting drunk already? Is it happening this fast?’ I didn’t have a point of reference. I’d never been drunk before.” Soon after, she began feeling dizzy, which is when, she said, McFadden’s boyfriend stood up, looking straight at her and walked McFadden to the back bedroom of the apartment. This left Tracy in the living room with the other four men: the two OSU football players, Calvin Carlyle and Jason Dandridge, and the other two men, Michael Ainsworth and Nakia Ware. Tracy then passed out on the couch. Upon regaining consciousness, “I realized I was laying on my back, on the floor, and I wasn’t able to move my arms or legs. I was able to move my head, and I looked [right] and the first man was trying to force his penis into my mouth, so I turned away and I looked [left] and the second man was trying to force his penis into my mouth, so I looked up, and the third man was raping me and the fourth man was stroking himself, waiting for his turn,” Tracy said. “I remember feeling like I was trying to say, ‘Stop, what are you doing? Why can’t I move?’ but I don’t know that I was able to make any noise.” Before she passed out again, she noticed the men congratulating each other on their performance and high-fiving each other.

graphic by Madeline Woods

The next time she regained consciousness, one of the men was pouring alcohol down her throat, till she gagged and choked on it. Still unable to speak, Tracy passed out again. When she woke up again, she felt as if she was going to vomit, so one of the men carried her to the bathroom and laid her over the bathroom counter. “As I was vomiting on myself in the sink,” she said, “he was raping me from behind.” Her attack lasted about six hours, only ending, she said, because the men couldn’t penetrate her anymore, as she was “so swollen and dry.” They tried to ice her vagina to stop the swelling, and when that didn’t help, her attack stopped. While she knows they also used an alcohol bottle and flashlight on her, Tracy doesn’t know what else they did to her, as she was unconscious, but doesn’t want to know. The next morning, fully conscious, Tracy woke up naked on the living room floor, with dried vomit and gum in her hair, and a condom on her stomach. “I just remember in that moment feeling like a piece of trash. I didn’t even feel like a human, I felt like a piece of garbage they’d just forgotten on the living room floor.” Even now, “it remains the most disgusting moment of my life...I can still feel the condom on my stomach.” She told the audience, “That’s the thing about this sort of trauma. It doesn’t ever really go away. You learn to live in spite of it, but it’s always there. I can always go back to that moment, even almost 20 years later.” She and McFadden left the apartment, and Tracy immediately began to blame herself, thinking “did I say something? Did I do something? What made them think I wanted this to happen?” When they got in the car, McFadden told her, “Brenda, it’s going to be okay, we just got in over our heads,” causing Tracy to suspect that McFadden knew what had transpired, and didn’t help. In that moment, Tracy said “my best friend became dead to me...in that moment, I didn’t know that person.” When she got home, her mom comforted her and convinced her to go to the hospital, so they could make sure Tracy hadn’t gotten pregnant or contracted an STI. As they drove to the hospital, her mom silently cried. “When my mom cries, it hurts in a different place in my heart,” Tracy said “I remember looking at my mom, thinking, ‘I did that to her.’” It was then Tracy began to think about suicide. In that moment, Tracy said, “I remember thinking, ‘What is the point? What is the point of even being alive if my only purpose on this planet is to be abused and beaten and raped? Why should I even be here?’” This wasn’t the first time Tracy had been sexually assaulted. As a young child, she’d been assaulted by a grandfather, and then by the drug-addicted boyfriend of her babysitter. Her marriage to her sons’ father had become a domestic violence situation as well. Trying to think rationally, Tracy looked to who would miss her. Her parents, she decided, would be fine. Then, she thought about her children, whose father was in and out of jail at the time. They would need her, she thought, until she realized, “those little boys are going to be men...how are they going to feel when they find out what happened to me. Once they know how could they ever love me? How could they ever not be ashamed of me? How could they ever not be disgusted by me?” Once she rationalized her sons would be fine without her, she decided to commit suicide, which felt “like a really great decision...there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. I’ll go to the hospital and get this exam done and then I’ll go home and kill myself.” “But,” she continued, “they tell you sometimes God has a different plan for your life than you do.” At the hospital, her nurse, Jenny, changed her mind. While she expected Jenny to do her job, but “find me disgusting as I felt,” Jenny was full of “overwhelming compassion, not anything contrite or anything.” She felt God direct her to become a nurse and take care of herself. “I always thought I was going to go to college, play volleyball or basketball and be a personal trainer,” she elaborated, but “I just knew in that moment that was what I was supposed to do.” The rape kit examination took about five hours. During that time, Tracy peppered Jenny with questions. She provided examples: “Jenny would say things like, ‘Brenda we need to do he vagina exam,’ and I would say, ‘How did you become a nurse?’ And she would say, ‘Brenda we have to pluck 10 pubic hairs and 10 head hairs,’ and I’d say, ‘Jenny what school did you go to?’ She would say, ‘Brenda we have to swab your anus and underneath your nails,’ and I’d say, ‘What about financial aid?’”

See Tracy, page 4

Sports

The Collegian: 2

11 September 2017

Golden Hurricane in action on Saturday afternoon

Redford Jones lines up the extra point in the first quarter following a De’Angelo Brewer score.

DE Myles Mouton leads Tulsa’s charge onto the field.

Corey Taylor II off to the races.

De’Angelo Brewer emerges from the pile for his third touchdown of the game.

photos by Dalton Stewart

We mistakenly included Terrelle Pryor as a member of the Cleveland Browns in last week’s NFL preview. Pryor signed with the Washingon Redskins in May.

Sports

11 September 2017

The Collegian: 3

Explosive offense carries TU past Louisiana

Justin Guglielmetti is…

the

bleacher creature?

Though the defense remains suspect, nearly 700 yards of total offense and 66 points were more than enough for a Golden Hurricane victory. Joe Edmonds Sports Correspondent This week, the Golden Hurricane football team returned home to play against Louisiana, looking to bounce back from their season opening loss at Oklahoma State. In the first half, it was difficult to tell that any defense was on the field for either team as both offenses scored on their first four possessions. Tulsa struck first, and Louisiana matched each score until a shanked extra point gave TU a 24-23 lead with two minutes left in the half. The game looked like it would head into halftime in a near draw, neither team able to separate themselves, but the last two minutes would change the course of the game. First, Chad President connected with Justin Hobbs on a slant, who beat single coverage for a 69 yard touchdown. Then, after the defense was finally able to halt the Ragin’ Cajun’s fearsome aerial attack, De’Angelo Brewer found a gaping hole and took the rock 60 yards to the two-yard line. Corey Taylor II punched it home to take a 38-23 halftime lead.

Louisiana was not ready to go down without a fight. They came out firing in the second half and scored two quick touchdowns, though yet another missed extra point as well as a botched two point conversion helped the Golden Hurricane maintain a lead at 38-35. The dynamic Tulsa offense then kicked back in, scoring four more touchdowns. At the end of the high-scoring affair, TU came away with an impressive 66-42 victory. Tulsa’s vaunted offensive line manhandled Louisiana’s Pop Warner defense, as the Golden Hurricane compiled 424 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. Brewer was the star of the afternoon, putting up the best line of his college career with 262 yards and three touchdowns on 38 carries. President also helped alleviate concern of a continued quarterback controversy with a conservative but efficient 243 yard passing performance. The win leveled TU’s record at 1-1 as they head into the third game of the season. They will next play on the road next Saturday, when Tulsa will play Toledo.

Upsets and injuries for TU soccer

Men’s soccer scores a huge upset with a win over No. 1 ranked Stanford while the women’s team’s season takes a turn for the worse. Joe Edmonds Sports Correspondent Men’s Soccer The Golden Hurricane men’s soccer team had a great road trip to California this weekend. They faced up against Santa Clara and Stanford and came away with a pair of victories. Santa Clara was the first opponent in a Thursday night matchup. Munashe Raranje came up big for Tulsa, scoring the opening goal and the game winner. His first goal gave Tulsa a 1-0 lead heading into halftime. Santa Clara responded with two goals in quick succession after the second half started. Thomas Wells evened the score again with fifteen minutes go to, and the game headed into overtime. Raranje beat a few defenders and was able to score the game winner in overtime to give Tulsa the victory. On Saturday, the Golden Hurricane faced the No. 1 ranked team in the country, Stanford. The defense held strong throughout the game, and Rollie Rocha net a pair of penalty kick goals to help TU pull off the 2-0 upset. After picking up their first two wins of the season, Tulsa is now 2-1-1. Next up on the schedule is a home game against Brown. The game starts at 7 p.m. on Friday night.

“Every game prepares us for conference play and I refuse to let us put our heads down and use any excuses because all of our players are good players and we are here to represent our University....” - Women’s head coach Kyle Cussen Women’s Soccer Meanwhile, the women’s soccer team’s struggles continued. In a home game against James Madison on Sunday, they fell 5-0. Completely overwhelmed by the Dukes’ relentless attack, TU spent almost the entire game on defense, attempting just one shot on goal. In addition to taking the loss, Tulsa suffered several injuries in the game. This weekend, the Golden Hurricane were in Memphis for the Tiger Invitational. On Friday, they dropped their first game 4-0 to Ole Miss. The injury depleted Tulsa lineup gave up all four goals in the first half, and were unable to recover from there. Next up is a Sunday game against Rice in the Tiger Invitational. Hopefully the Golden Hurricane are able to get healthy and gain some momentum heading into the rivalry match against ORU on Friday at 7.

Hurricane Scoreboard Football Sep. 9: Tulsa 66 - Louisiana 42 Women’s Soccer Sep. 3: James Madison 5 - Tulsa 0 Sep. 5: Ole Miss 4 - Tulsa 0

Lonzo Baby What is You Doing?? Believe it or not, I’m not a Lonzo Ball hater. Sure there are some things I don’t like about him, but those are mostly out of his control (ahem ahem, Lakers and Lavar). Truth be told, I would love for a quirky shooting, middlingly athletic, traditionally pass-first point guard to be able to still come into the NBA and succeed. And that’s why Lonzo needs to stop rapping. Last week, the 19-year-old released his debut single, “Melo Ball 1,” which is two minutes of masturbatory hot garbage over his youngest brother LaMelo. It starts off with a moderately catchy hook by Kenneth Paige because Big Baller Brand couldn’t afford The-Dream and then quickly devolves into pretty much what you’d expect: a person who isn’t a rapper thinking he’s a rapper. Lonzo comes in with the monotoniest monotone you’ve ever heard, spitting such fire as “He’s swagged out, he a walking gym” (actually I’m pretty sure he weighs 90 lbs. soaking wet) and “How you hating and you banging this?” Don’t worry, plenty of people will still be hating because nobody will be banging this. Now I’m not saying that being a bad rapper means you’ll be a bad player, but at least someone like Shaq seemed to implicitly understand that he was a joke on the mic, whereas Lonzo thinks he’s actually got some skill. That’s the kind of overconfidence that will turn him into a Shooting Stars meme after LeBron chasedown blocks him into the shadow realm. You May be Seated I’m old enough to remember when Aaron Judge was the talk of the baseball world. He spent the first couple of months of summer hitting every ball that came his way into the stratosphere, flashing his trademark gaptoothed grin and making everyone forget that Giancarlo Stanton was supposed to be this generation’s beloved herculean slugger. So much for that! Since the All-Star break, Judge has wallowed well below the Mendoza line while Stanton has gone on one of the most impressive power binges of all time, clubbing an absurd 18 home runs in August and bringing his season total up to 54. By the way, that puts him on pace to top 60 homers and join one of the most hallowed and exclusive clubs in baseball. It’s been a season of incredible power accomplishments — a record-breaking league total, four homer games by both Scooter Gennett and J.D. Martinez, Phillies rookie Rhys Hoskins becoming the fastest player ever to hit 11 dingers (18 games) — but an ostensibly clean player topping Roger Maris’s famous total of 61 would be the biggest one of them all. Hopefully in the offseason Judge will meet Stanton in a Miami back alley, eat him, become a 10 foot, 800 pound behemoth, and smash every home run record in the book. Take that Barry Bonds. The Shame of Captain ‘Cane There wasn’t a whole lot to be proud of during last week’s drubbing at the hands of Oklahoma State but there’s one issue I haven’t seen anybody talking about. OSU’s mascot, Pistol Pete, sauntered over to our cheerleaders and placed a meaty orangetinted paw on one of their shoulders. And what did our glorious defender Captain ‘Cane do while one of his students was being disrespected? Did he draw his sword and summon his vast meteorological abilities to fry Pete on the spot? Nope. He just sat there. Doing nothing. Next time, I’m going to need a little more Superman and a little less Clark Kent bruh.

Men’s Soccer Sep. 7: Tulsa 3 - Santa Clara 2 2OT Sep. 9: Tulsa 2 - Stanford 0 Volleyball Sep. 8: Colgate 3 - Tulsa 0 Stephen F. Austin 3 - Tulsa 2 Sep 9: Tulsa 3 - Texas Southern 0

Sept. 11 - Sept. 17 Monday

Tuesday 11

Women’s Golf vs. Texas State

Wednesday 12

Women’s Golf vs. Texas State

13

Thursday 14

Saturday

Friday 15

Men’s Soccer vs. Brown 7 p.m.

No Events No Events Scheduled Scheduled

Women’s Soccer @ Oral Roberts 7 p.m. Volleyball @ Oral Roberts 7:30 p.m.

Cross Country

Sunday 16

17

@ Missouri

Southern Stampede Men’s Tennis

vs. Tulsa Futures Pro Circuit

Women’s Golf vs. Kansas St.

Volleyball vs. Wyoming

12:30 p.m.

Volleyball vs.

Central Arkansas 5:30 p.m. Football

@ Toledo 6 p.m.

Women’s Soccer @ Missouri St. 1 p.m.

The Collegian: 4 Continued from Tracy, on cover “We just ping-ponged back and forth for hours until I was done with my rape exam and also knew what I needed to do to become a nurse.” Two months later, Tracy enrolled in community college, and over the years, ended

News

told to perform 25 hours community service. After all of this, Tracy said she hoped time would help her to move on. But it didn’t; she struggled with depression, PTSD, a borderline eating disorder, not being able to sleep and suicidal thoughts. She felt “ruined from the inside. Like

“‘My rapists stole those years from me and my children and I can’t ever get them back.’” up getting her RN, a Bachelor’s in nursing and a Master’s in business and healthcare management. She pointed out this story because “you really don’t know what someone else is going through....if it’s your smile or kind gesture from you that seems really small to you that could mean a lot to another person.” Tracy then decided to prosecute her rapists, and soon the four were arrested. With their arrests, Tracy felt that “the wheels of justice had started turning. I really thought it was going to be like an episode of Law and Order.” But with two of the accused being football players, the arrests immediately made the news. And while Tracy was listed as Jane Doe in the complaint, word spread who she was. First, people started questioning her, asking “Why was she lying, why was she trying to ruin these young mens’ promising football careers, what was in it for her. And this is the same thing we still see today.” Those close to her also began to distance themselves. Her boyfriend broke up with her, and about a week and a half later, McFadden turned up. But their reunion wasn’t pleasant; Tracy said “I believe in an effort to protect her boyfriend and his brother, she said if you go to court, I will testify against you. That was probably the hardest hit for me.” The other thing that happened was the DA told her she didn’t have a good case — it was a “he said, she said” trial, there would be four separate trials that would take years, her rape kit would be make public and she probably wouldn’t win. With all of these compounded and that she “was still traumatized and somewhat suicidal and just wanted to go to school,” she dropped the prosecution. In 2014, when her story finally went public, she learned the truth. The DA had taped confessions from all of them, and the police did not end up testing the rape kit, but threw it away before the statute of limitations on

they were inside of me and there weren’t any amount of hot showers that I could scrub them off of me.” Every day, she said, she would consider suicide but couldn’t because of her sons. Eventually, that led to her resenting them — “they were the reasons I had to live. They were the reason I couldn’t die. Any my resentment for them looked like me being angry, me yelling a lot, me not being patient with them.” “My rapists stole those years from me and my children and I can’t ever get them back,” she continued. When she turned 40, in 2014, Tracy questioned her life — or lives. She was living two lives; “on one side, I’d finished school, I’d got off welfare, I had a great job, I was taking care of my sons, was making a good amount of money....everybody thought we were doing really well. On the other side I was this hurt, broken person.” Living two lives was exhausting, so she decided to go to counseling. A few sessions in, she opened up to her counselor about the rape, and the counselor questioned her long-standing belief that the school had done something. “That was the one little thing I held on to all those years,” she mentioned. So she began to contact the school to dig into the case. Because the school made it difficult to get information, she decided to look into other avenues, which turned out to be Coach Riley. But she wasn’t sure how that would turn out. She “wanted to write the letter in a way that he wouldn’t get defensive, so he could see how his words affected me, how his actions affected my life.” In searching him, she learned he was seen as the “best guy in football. Everybody loves him, he doesn’t cuss, he goes to church every Sunday...I’m thinking in my mind, am I the only person that hates this guy?” An article from 2009 highlighted another decision he made — giving a player a two game suspension for a domestic violence

“‘I became Brenda Tracy, Registered Nurse, single mom, rape survivor.’” the case ran out. During the investigation almost 20 years later, the DA from the time said getting convictions against the men with the convictions and physical evidence available, even without Tracy’s cooperation. The athletic department at the time was in debt over $1 million and trying to renovate the stadium, asking for donations — a rape scandal wouldn’t help with donations. To those who thought the story sounded unbelievable, she said, “I’m not just telling you these things because people think they found them out. The only person who wasn’t able to comment was the university president of the time, because he’s dead. But everyone else commented on my story. They all verified all of this happened. Sometimes I think if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t believe it myself.” Her giving up prosecution caused another media story, except this time people called her a liar. “No one took the time to see I was trying to make the best informed decision for my life and for my children. Instead,” she said, “everyone just decided I really was a liar.” But she still didn’t want what had happened to her happening to others. So she went to OSU’s sexual assault counselor and discussed what could happened. After her discussion, she “assumed they would take care of it. I left there and just kinda wiped my hands of it.” One more news story came out, however. The coach of the OSU team at the time, Coach Riley, said, “these are really good guys who made a bad choice,” and gave his two players a one game suspension. He then said they took the suspension well, which Tracy rebutted, saying, “Of course they’re taking it well, they were facing 20 years in prison...and really good guys who made a bad choice? That’s what gang rape is?...I didn’t understand what I was going through was the product of someone just making a bad choice.” While the words stuck with her, she believed the school was doing something to punish her rapists or educate students. The later investigation would find the two students had been put on school probation, participated in an educational program and

conviction. She decided to send an email to the reporter — John Canzano. Canzano and her met in August of 2014, and he gave her an offer: he could set up a meeting with Coach Riley or he could tell her story. With the latter option, she thought “Tell my story, who cares? Nobody cared 16 years ago, why would they care now? Literally in my head I was just thinking, what do I have to lose...I kinda had this fuck it moment.” In November 2014, her story went public. “That was a really intense moment and transformational moment for me...I was two people until that moment. When my story went up, I became Brenda Tracy, Registered Nurse, single mom, rape survivor,” she said. This time, she didn’t get any backlash; “this time people loved on me, people be-

lieved in me, but they had questions about back then.” The then president of OSU issued an apology and started an internal investigation, and Canzano also did an investigation, which revealed what had happened in 1998 as discussed earlier. After learning the truth, Tracy “was pretty angry, because my rapist should’ve just been getting out of prison. But now, because the statute of limitations was up, they’d never go to prison.” She discussed her options with a lawyer, who told her, “if you want help changing a law I will help you do that.” Since then, Tracy has helped change seven laws in her state. These involve extending the statute of limitations, mandating police test rape kits and creating other laws that help protect students on campuses. She also sits on an NCAA commission to combat sexual violence. This initiative was partly done by her son, who, after seeing how upset she was about the Baylor sexual assault scandal, offered to contact them. “There’s a lot of things that are NCAA violations but rape is not one of them. Accepting money and a hamburger are, but not rape,” she noted. Her speaking career started with Coach Riley. He had invited her to Oregon State to talk, but then suddenly moved to Nebraska

11 September 2017 But they need to be louder than the sexual assaulters, she said. “The media narrative would have you believe that if I was drunk and passed out right now, a bunch of men would line up to rape me. They make it like you’re all animals, and that’s not true. You’re just silent.” “I need you guys to step up. See something, say something...you could literally save a life, I promise you,” Tracy continued. As a survivor, “I don’t want to see anyone else go through what I’ve been through.” She asked the men on campus to “let the women on this campus know they can go to a party, they can drink, they can have fun, and if something happens they can be kept safe.” “If I go to a party and I drink and I drink too much, do you know what I expect? I expect to have a raging headache and maybe a hangover and be a little sick. I don’t expect to get raped,” she said. Then she asked the men to think about what it was like to be a woman on campus, and consider most victims knew who their attacker was. “That means if I’m at a party and I drink, I have to wonder, which one of these guys might rape me...I knew some of my rapists,” she continued. Dandridge had seemed like the guy she should be dating before her

“‘See something, say something... you could literally save a life.’” to coach football there. But he continued to reach out to her, and eventually she took him up on the offer. The two talked privately, and he allowed her to vent, holding himself accountable, she said. She then talked to his team. “Think about that,” she told the athletes in the audience. “If that was your coach, and you were sitting in a room listening to me...I hated your coach more than I hated my rapist. But again, he didn’t flinch.” A rapist she could rationalize, because they destroy lives. “I cannot rationalize good people doing nothing. I can’t rationalize a one game suspension for gang rape, I can’t rationalize the DA lying to me... all these people put in place to protect me didn’t,” she said. “The other thing I can’t rationalize was why football was more important than my life. Literally,” she said, and then continued, “The other saying you hear is life is priceless. My life wasn’t priceless. I have a price tag. My price tag was the cost of Reser Stadium.” The stadium was “built off of my back and my pain and my children’s pain.” Her Message The story of her talking to Coach Riley then went viral and launched her speaking career. Since then, she’s been to about forty schools, including the University of Florida, the University of Auburn and Texas A&M. She primarily works with athletes, and mostly men. She rationalized this choice by saying, “if women could stop sexual violence we would’ve already done it. I know that. I know that well over 90 percent of sexual violence is committed by men against women, children and other men.” She rationalized focusing on athletes by saying, “Sports is our country’s religion, especially men’s sports. There’s nothing in our country that we participate in more than athletics and sports.” But not all men commit these crimes. To these men, she “wanted to ask you to be the 90 percent. I understand that you guys are thinking, ‘I don’t commit rape, I don’t beat on people, I was raised right.’”

Violence Prevention Program Coordinator Kelsey Hancock (left) and Brenda Tracy (right).

assault. “Never in a million years would I have thought Jason would do that to me. I still have a hard time understanding how.” To anyone who has been, or is in the future, sexually assaulted, Tracy offered these words: “It’s not your fault. Ever. It is never your fault. People like to talk about alcohol, kids going to college, hormones, there’s all these things that cause rape. No. Nothing causes rape but a rapist. Period. That person makes a conscious decision to violate another person’s body.” At the end of her talk, she asked the audience for their responses to her beginning challenge: how would they respond if she was their mother. One man in the audience called out he’d like to kill them. “Yeah, my sons do,” she responded. “We’ve talked about how they don’t get to go find them. It doesn’t do anybody any good.” After sharing her life story with the audience, Tracy said “it’s not easy for me to stand up here and tell you what happened to me. It’s embarrassing and it’s gross...I do it because I need you to know. I need you to understand that I’m a real person. All of you can be a part of helping to end this.” The night concluded with a bold statement from a TU student. After telling people to believe and offer help to anyone who tells them they’d been sexually assaulted, Mary Beth Sawyer said “if you don’t believe them, I don’t give a flying fuck if you don’t believe them. Shut your mouth.” “It starts with small things people. Little things make a difference. You start off telling someone to shut up when bullying happens, next thing you know you’re telling someone, ‘Hey, what are you doing with that girl, I hope you’re taking her to her apartment.” “Rape is a problem on this campus. It’s been a problem on every campus that she’s been to. We do not want our campus known for that, and it’s becoming a problem,” she finished.

photo by Michaela Flonard

News

11 September 2017

6:15 p.m. University of Tulsa Campus Security Officers were dispatched to University Square Apartments West to investigate a noise complaint. Upon arrival, officers discovered no one was home, and there was no noise coming from the apartment.

Sep 1 5:35 p.m. While on routine patrol at Oxley College of Health Services University of Tulsa Campus Security Officers were informed about an unknown person who had been in the restroom for an extended period of time. Officers were able to make contact with the individual. The individual stated they were affiliated with the University of Tulsa, and had recently had a medical procedure done. 9:00 p.m. While on routine patrol University of Tulsa Campus Security Officers observed four individuals playing soccer on the soccer field. The individuals were all students and not affiliated with the soccer team. Officers advised the students they are not allowed to play on that field but can instead use the Multi-Purpose Field. The students left without incident. Sep 2 3:40 p.m. University of Tulsa Campus Security Officers were dispatched to a call at Hardesty Hall. A TU student reported their bed sheets missing. Upon investigation, Campus Security found the sheets down the hallway.

Sep 3 12:05 a.m. While on routine patrol University of Tulsa Campus Security Officers had an individual who appeared to be intoxicated approached their vehicle in the Lorton Village parking lot. The individual was uncooperative and refused to give officers their name. Officers then detained and identified the individual as a student. Tulsa Police responded and the student was arrested for public intoxication. The students wallet and hat were secured in a property locker for safe keeping. Sep 5 5:30 p.m. Officers were dispatched to Mabee Gym in regards to a possible situation involving a university employee. A University of Tulsa employee came to Campus Security to inform Officers about a protective order. Sep 6 12:15 p.m. Officers were dispatched to John Mabee Hall in regards to a welfare check on a student. Upon arrival, officers made contact with the student in their residence and the student was okay. Officers cleared the scene with no further incident. The Collegian does not produce or edit the Campus Crime Watch except for content and brevity.

Nathan Gibbons Student Writer

Australian PM supports same-sex marriage Ahead of a non-binding vote on changing Australia’s marriage act to allow gay marriage, many Australian political leaders have come out in support of of the campaign. If a majority votes yes, parliament could move forward to change the act. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke at the New South Wales Yes campaign last Sunday and referred to the 23 other nations that had legalized same-sex marriage. “In any one of those nations, has the sky fallen in? Has life as we know it come to a halt? Has traditional marriage as we know it been undermined? The answer is no,” he said. Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten spoke out against the non-binding vote, saying the postal survey was too costly and that it could lead to hate campaigns. Last week, the high court of Australia dismissed two separate legal challenges to the poll.

British marchers rally against Brexit

Last Saturday, the People’s March for Europe went through central London before rallying in Parliament Square to demonstrate against Brexit. The demonstrators, or ‘remainers’, wore European flags or dressed in blue and yellow. MPs will vote this Monday to overturn the act that instigates European laws in the UK and took the British into the EU. Liberal Democrat cabinet minister Sir Ed Davey told demonstrators he was outraged by Brexit. “Since the Brexit negotiations begun there’s a third emotion I’ve been feeling - embarrassment. Embarrassment at our country’s leaders. Embarrassment for Great Britain,” he said. Tory peer Baroness Patience Wheatcroft told the ralliers that they need to keep campaigning to stay in the EU. “It’s not undemocratic to try to persuade the electorate to think again about Brexit. That’s democracy at work,” she said.

NATO secretary: North Korea needs global response North Korea’s nuclear program “is a global threat and requires a global response”, NATO’s general secretary Jens Stoltenberg told reporters last week. North Korea has threatened to attack the US territory Guam, a situation which many believe could force NATO to trigger its multinational defense pact. “I will not speculate about whether Article 5 will be applied in such a situation,” Mr Stoltenberg said. “What I will say is that we are now totally focused on how can we contribute to a peaceful solution of the conflict and press North Korea to stop its nuclear missile programs.” The NATO treaty’s article 5 states that an attack on any member nation is an attack on all members. The United States government has drafted new sanctions to be placed against North Korea. However, critics argue that sanctions have had little effect on the authoritarian state in the past.

Chinese billionaire seeks asylum in US Chinese citizen Guo Wengui, a billionaire and New York property tycoon, announced last week that he has applied for asylum in the US. Beijing has sought Wengui’s arrest, but the charges against him are vague. Wengui has posted a series of online allegations of corruption among officials of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. He has also released what he says are official state secrets. Though Wengui has not revealed substantial evidence for his claims, the Chinese government issued a notice to Interpol for Guo’s arrest last April. At least 19 allegations have been placed against Wengui in the past, including fraud, money laundering, kidnapping and rape. Wengui denies the allegations and claims they are politically motivated.

The Collegian: 5

Laureate Institute for Brain Research recruits TU students for study LIBR means to examine the effects of a mental toughness program that seeks to lessen the anxieties associated with education. Grace McFee Student Writer The Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR) has recruited TU freshmen to participate in a study on mental toughness that will last for their entire college careers. These students were separated into two groups, a “control” group and a “testers” group, and have agreed to be surveyed regularly during their college experience. In order to participate, interested incoming freshmen were required to attend one inperson group session at TU, during which the study was described and volunteers gave their complete written consent. Those students chosen to be in the testers group were required to undergo a training period meant to help students strengthen and exercise their mental toughness. The control group did not receive this training and students in that group are meant to continue their lives as usual with no aid for stress or anxiety. After the training, both groups will participate in frequent surveys about classes, personal life, and health for the remainder of college. These surveys are meant to help LIBR understand the stress levels a student attending a prestigious school experiences.

If capable, those students in the testers group can consent to MRI Scans before and after the “TU Tough” training so that brain patterns and any reduction of anxiety can be shown in the images. Cheyanne Wheat, though she was incapable of participating in the MRI scans, says: “Not only are you helping the research, but you receive the brain images for personal keeping! I thought that was awesome!” The study also involves online surveys through the duration of the program and submission of an optional saliva sample. Megan West, a Petroleum Engineering major and a participant in the program, says: “I think the TU Tough program that the Laureate Institute for Brain Research is conducting is a great opportunity for TU students to earn some extra cash while also helping Laureate conduct important research. As a volunteer you benefit greatly, all you have to do is truthfully complete the surveys they email you. The longest surveys take about an hour, but honestly, as college students we are on our phones so much, an hour is nothing.” Student volunteers are compensated $240 for completion of all aspects of the study and a select number of students will have the opportunity to participate in further research (which includes a brain-imaging session) at LIBR. Concluding her interview, West said: “I think that the research Laureate is conducting is very important and has the potential to help a lot of people in the future. Plus what college student doesn’t want a little extra cash?”

Tuesday, September 12 at 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Chapman Hall, Dean’s Conference Room Webinar: Global Learning, Beyond Studying Abroad Please join the Center for Global Education for a webinar on Global Learning – Beyond Studying Abroad. Student engagement with global issues and perspectives should no longer rest with one elective or one semester of study abroad. The world we live in has made it increasingly important for academic leaders to integrate global learning into all levels of higher education, at institutions of all types and sizes, as a core component of higher education. This event is open to faculty and students. Tuesday, September 12 at 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tyrrell Hall Another View of the Tulsa Race Riot: A Lecture by Herb Boyd Herb Boyd is an award-winning journalist and the author of twleve books on topics in black history and activism including biographies of James Baldwin and Sugar Ray Robinson as well as a history of African-American life and politics in Detroit. His talk will look at the Tulsa Race Riot in the context of American civil disorder and will draw on Harry Haywood’s eyewitness account of the event as a member of the African Blood Brotherhood. Free and open to all. Tuesday, September 12 at 7:30 p.m. Lorton Performance Center, Gussman Concert Hall Renowned Pianist Cristiana Pegoraro, J. Donald Feagin Visiting Artist The University of Tulsa’s J. Donald Feagin Visiting Artist Series opens this season with renowned Italian pianist Cristiana Pegoraro, who will present a recital on Tuesday, September 12, 7:30 p.m. in the Gussman Concert Hall, Lorton Performance Center on the TU campus and a master class the following day. Fanfare Magazine has described Pegoraro as “a multifaceted artist who eagerly searches for passion and musical inspiration in her life and her performances.” She is known for her innovative programming and especially for performances of South American music, including the tangos of Astor Piazzola.

Tuesday, September 12 Circle Cinema, 10 S. Lewis Ave.

Two Dollar Tuesdays TU $2 Tuesdays (eacn and every Tuesday!) for students with I.D. Pick any regular feature for JUST TWO BUCKS! Now Playing: Tulip Fever, Columbus, The Trip To Spain, Menashe, The Big Sick, 13 Minutes, Maudie

Friday, September 15 at 5:00 p.m. Mayo Village Apartments and Student Activities Center LANBrew Gaming Back to School Bash We are hosting a local multiplayer gaming party throughout the night. People bring consoles/computers, and play games together under the same roof. If you don’t have anything to bring, that’s okay! You’ll easily find people to play with. We are hosting a Puyo Puyo Tetris tournament @ 8pm and a Guitar Hero III tournament @ 10pm. Prizes are awarded! Non-TU students are welcome. Tournaments are free for TU students and $5 for non-TU students. We will be serving Papa John’s pizza, chips, and drinks. The Collegian does not produce all event descriptions in the Community Calendar. Contact us at news@tucollegian.org with events.

The Collegian: 6

Commentary

11 September 2017

TU should institute non-smoking policy

TU should replace the current smoking policy, which prohibits smoking 25 feet from a building, with a total smoking ban. Michaela Flonard Managing Editor As of July 3, 2017, at least 1,913 college campuses were 100 percent smoke-free, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. A subset of these also prohibited e-cigarettes, hookah or marijuana smoking. For Oklahoma, some of these smokefree schools include Oklahoma State University, University of Oklahoma and the University of Central Oklahoma. Not included on the list? The University of Tulsa. Instead, TU’s policy is no smoking within 25 feet of any building, which is readily ignored whenever it gets too cold out, or whenever a smoker feels like it. Countless times have I troughed through a cloud of

smoke walking through the Hardesty Hall arch. It doesn’t help that ashtrays are located close to buildings, giving a convenient excuse for smokers. But smoke-free campuses are possible, as demonstrated by the number that have gone smoke-free. Why should TU, however? Smokefree campuses result in less secondhand smoke for nonsmokers merely trying to get to class, put less stress on those trying to quit smoking and lead to a cleaner campus. Additionally, research on nonsmoking campuses has demonstrated smoking bans reduce smoking, and while it may not be the university’s goal to reduce smoking — it is your choice whether to smoke or not — that’s a nice added benefit. A review of studies concerning antismoking policies and students behavior on campus, done by Brooke Bennett, Melodi

Overall, the studies suggested smoking policies were effective in reducing the smoking behavior of students and exposure to secondhand smoke. Again, reducing smoking need not be TU’s goal in implementing such a ban — as adults, students should feel free to smoke, if they wish, but those who do not should not be exposed to their toxic pastime. And this is the biggest counter-argument to any smoking ban, no matter the location: smoking is still a legal pastime and as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, it should be allowed wherever, opponents say. But other legal pastimes, like alcohol, that pose a danger to others, have some restrictions. Second-hand smoke has been shown to be dangerous to others, and an annoying nuisance even without the carcinogens, so the university has a valid reason to further

“. . . smoke-free campuses are possible, as demonstrated by the number that have gone smoke-free.” Deiner and Pallav Pokhrel studied the outcome of smoking bans on a number of campuses. The review found that interventions that promoted compliance, as well as increasing the availability of smoking cessation services on campus, led to a reduced pro-smoking attitude, exposure to secondhand smoke and proportions of high- and low-frequency smokers.

limit smoking on campus — the health of the majority of the population. A ban would not prevent smokers from going off campus, or even to a less central, designated place, where they could smoke. TU’s campus isn’t as big as some of the campuses with smoking bans mentioned earlier, and smokers at those schools adapted to changes. Surely smokers at TU can do

the same, so that others who choose not to smoke, whether for health reasons or otherwise, will not be exposed to noxious air and carcinogens on their way to class. As a private university, TU has the ability to ban smoking from its campuses. Other private institutions have done so, whether legislatively mandated or not, as well as other universities. A smoke-free campus could be another thing TU prides itself on. In creating a smoking ban, TU could choose to deal with rule-breakers in one of two ways, as done on other campuses: fines for those who violate the ban or directing smokers to resources to help them quit. With the latter approach, universities like the University of Michigan are hoping for a change in norms that will eventually lead to a decrease in smoking on campus, as discussed earlier. I would hope, and believe, TU students to be respectful if a ban were implemented, so that imposing fines would be a non-issue. But consequences of breaking such a ban would still need to be considered when implementing one. TU should institute a campus-wide smoking ban. This could be done by getting student opinion in SA meetings and then passing a recommendation off to administrators. At the very least, smoking should be restricted around the school, perhaps creating “smoker havens,” where those who must light up can, but far away from the path of those who don’t smoke or who are trying to quit smoking.

Department of Corrections sets new, unfortunate record

The Department of Corrections incarcerates and sentences too many people at any given time, a disservice to the community.

major challenges when so little funding and resources are provided. Ex-prisoners often have no source of income when they leave prison, and face trouble getting a job when they have been convicted of a crime. If their family does not take them back, they have to find a new place to stay while, again, low on funds. It can seem like common sense to resort to crime in these situations, and thus end up back in prison, a trend called “recidivism.”

One of the bigger problems is the length of prison sentence. Pew Trust found that Oklahoma’s prison sentence length has increased 83 percent from 1990-2009. Prisoners are spending more time in prison. Another problem leading to the increase in the correctional population is that many of the crimes for which people are convicted are nonviolent, and nonviolent offenders are also being held for longer. The same study found that the time served for drug offenses

Raven Fawcett Commentary Editor Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections added more than a thousand people to its system as of August 31 in the last nine months alone, the highest amount of people to ever be in Oklahoma’s system at a time. According to a press release by the Department of Corrections (DOC), a total of more than 63,000 are currently in the DOC system. These include over 34,700 people under surveillance (which includes parolees and people under probation), over 26,700 people incarcerated, and more than 1500 awaiting incarceration in county jail backup. As of the Department of Justice’s 2015 reports, Oklahoma has the second-highest incarceration rate in the country. The simple solution is to stop sending people back to prison. Much of the argument surrounding the prison system targets reintegration programs that allow ex-prisoners to adjust to life outside of confinement. Helping people to get jobs, housing and to reconnect with their communities are

graphic by Madeline Woods

More people than ever are incarcerated, paroled and otherwise under watch of the DOC.

There’s only one problem: as of 2004, Oklahoma had the lowest rate of recidivism in the United States. Pew Center found that just 24.1 percent of Oklahoma prisoners returned to prison after their release. The number has increased slightly since then but remained fairly consistent. Clearly, Oklahoma’s biggest concern is not repeat offenders.

in Oklahoma more than doubled in the two decades of the study. We have to ask ourselves what prisons and the Department of Corrections are for. Does the increase in prison population, in the number of people who are monitored by the government, create a safer and closerknit community? Or does it only increase the number of people who cannot vote, who

no longer feel like they have a place in their community, and estrange them from the life they had wanted to lead before taking a detour to a life that distances them from the average experience of their peers? Not only is jail an alienating and life-altering experience, but as of 2014 Oklahoman prisoners there were 4.5 times as many African-American prisoners as there were white prisoners. This is not only an issue of crime, but of race and the ways that the current prison system benefits white people while stacking the deck against minorities. The number of people within the DOC system is inexcusable. The rate of incarceration and surveillance has outpaced its usefulness. Instead of a security system, legal punishment in Oklahoma has become a looming threat that is more and more present in daily life. However, specific measures can be taken to lessen the number of people in prison and under surveillance while not stripping the legal system of its power to protect the community from dangerous citizens. Nonviolent offenses should be punished less harshly, with fewer convictions and less time spent in jail. Drug-related crimes are an obvious facet of this category, and while they can damage a community, drug and alcohol abuse are addictions. We should spend more money on rehabilitating people than we do punishing them. State Questions are a great way to make your voice heard on this issue. Be sure to vote in local elections where your vote not only matters, but has a direct effect on the people around you. You can also call your district representatives in the state legislature to get more information and notify them that this is an issue that you care about.

Hospitals torn between discounted drugs, insufficient oversight

Hospitals and pharmaceutical companies require more careful monitoring when dealing with prescription drugs and lowincome patients. Nathan Hinkle Student Writer A government program titled 340B that requires drug companies to give discounts to hospitals who serve people on Medicaid or private insurance is under fire from drug companies. Created in 1992 under thenpresident George H. W. Bush, its purpose was to stop health care costs from skyrocketing which would cause problems for the government and hospitals. Through this law, Bush hoped to lower the costs for the government on Medicare

patients as well as the strain these patients place on the hospital system. As more people began to join Medicare, the costs have been going up for drug companies. Drug companies argue that hospitals are taking advantage of this bill in order to make undue amounts of money from drug companies. In this scenario, they say that hospitals are purposely joining together with insurance groups in order to reach a larger audience while still paying bottom dollar for the drugs involved. Through this alleged corruption of the system, hospitals are merely pocketing the revenues rather than using them to cover necessary costs from uninsured individuals. Adam J. Fein who runs Drug Channel Institutes, a research organization based in the pharmaceutical industry, argues that “the value of hospitals’ uncompensated care has been declining while 340B purchases have been soaring” According to Fein, the rising problem with 340B is that 340B lowered drug prices are now more than 50 percent of all drug purchases but the costs of uninsured patients has gone below 10 percent of a hospital’s total cost. Therefore, these hospitals are making ludicrous amounts of money against the drug companies instead of allowing them to break even. This battle between hospital and drug company has been happening for many

years. As the population gets older and more people get on medicare, the amount of purchases grows. Some hospitals argue that they could not survive without these lowered drug costs. In 2013, Director of Pharmacy at the Columbus Regional Healthcare System, Burnis D. Breland told the New York Times, “If we did not have our 340B program, I seriously doubt we could have our outpatient cancer center”. These hospitals argue that 340B is extremely important in meeting their financial needs in order to help out their community. Another claim by hospitals is that drug companies are actually part of the problem. Instead of hospitals receiving lower prices that they don’t deserve, drug companies are not going through with their end of the bargain. According to a federal study in 2011, some drug companies are not providing the maximum refund required and are instead forcing the hospitals to pay more. Ted Slafsky, current leader of 340B Health which helps hospitals apply for the program, stated that, “basically, the pendulum has swung so aggressively towards oversight of the hospitals, with little concern about the drug companies.” According to this statement, the 340B program could potentially be under threat from both sides of the table. The major way one could potentially lessen the problems with this bill is to give more

funds to the government agency in charge of the 340B program. The Health Resources and Services Administration, created in 1982, is the primary government force that is in charge of controlling this gigantic issue. However, the organization only has 1,860 employees and only has an annual budget of $4.4 million. The problem with this government agency is that there is an overabundance of work for such a small organization. They both file grants by any potential hospital who wants these potential bonuses and are also supposed to watch over both the hospitals and the drug companies over all 50 states. Without sufficient funding or work force, it is almost impossible that they could be the watchdog for such a large industry. In 2013, the HRSA audited a mere 51 hospitals which were the first in the program’s history. The problem here is dual sided; some hospitals and some drug companies are at fault for breaking the system for their own financial gain. The program does good work where it is truly necessary but without potential oversight, the program will be mired in corruption and illegal activities. In order to do their job effectively, the HRSA needs more funding in order to enforce this bill fairly as the problems with 340B purchases will continue to expand as the U.S. population continues to grow older.

Commentary

11 September 2017

The Collegian: 7

Ask us your questions about life, school and everything in between. Check back next week to see if Abby has answered your question! graphic by Madeline Woods

Abby Anonymous Fictitious Student Writer I’ve been in an unrequited love spiral with a good friend on campus for almost 4 years now. I find excuses to hang out with him and it’s pretty obvious I’d do anything for him. I think he knows but I want to be emotionally honest and talk about it directly before we both graduate. How do I approach this conversation without getting my heart stomped on? Sincerely, Miserable in Mayo I think I’m supposed to tell you to consider the importance of your friendship. But I am a hopeless romantic and I believe that love is worth the risk. As far as not getting your heart stomped on, well, I think that’s another risk you’ll

QR code link to the anonymous submission form.

have to take. Telling another person that you have feelings for them, especially strong feelings such as your own, is one of the scariest things we have to do in this life. Be brave! You won’t know how your friend feels until you ask. For all you know, he has no idea that you’re in love with him and might be taken completely by surprise. If your friend does know, it could be that he’s just too shy to say anything. Unfortunately, the flip side of that is the possibility that he’s looking for a way to let you down easy. Either way, it seems like this guy really cares about you as a friend and doesn’t want to hurt or insult you by making assumptions about your feelings. At the end of the day, I think it’s important to tell people how we truly feel about them. Rejection and heartache are really scary, but just think of the happiness to come if things do work out between the two of you! If you

do find yourself facing rejection, at least you will have made an honest effort with him. Being in love with your best friend is heartbreaking in its own right. But my mom always says that what is meant to be will be, and I’m inclined to believe her. I wish you the best of luck and I hope that your heart is happy no matter what the two of you decide. I have a friend who is constantly comparing my relationship to hers. It’s almost like she thinks her life is perfect and that everyone around her should be modeling themselves after her. I’m so sick of hearing her talk about how I should try to do more things with my boyfriend that she does with hers. How do I tell her to stop talking to me like this without losing her as a friend? Sincerely, Tired of Little Miss Perfect

Tell her that she really hurts your feelings when she compares your relationships, and remind her that your love story doesn’t have to look like anybody else’s. If she doesn’t respond well, then find a new friend. In all seriousness, your friend might actually be feeling insecure about her own relationship. Check in with her and see how she’s really doing. You should still express to her that your feelings have been hurt, but try to be gentle about it. She also might be one of those people who thinks they have it all figured out. If your friend really does just think her relationship is better than yours, then that’s her problem, not yours. Don’t subject yourself to an unhealthy friendship. Obviously, if your friend is suffering quietly, you should do your best to help her. Otherwise, I encourage you to seek more supportive and loving friends.

of digital communications, the foremost examples being Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Because, while such networks might have been intended to widen communication between people, they also give people the ability to block out any opinions or messages differing from their own. The University of Tulsa’s own Professor Mark Brewin wrote in an article for the Tulsa World earlier this year that while networks were meant to “bring us freedom and variety,” they instead have left us with an “inability for well-meaning people of all political stripes and passions to simply understand one another.” The implications of this regarding the 2016 election have been widely discussed, but it’s a conversation I don’t think can be exhausted enough. The shocking contrast between that election’s predicted result and the actual result certainly represented some sort of disconnect between the opposing parties. I’m probably not well-enough informed to host an educated discussion on political echo chambers, so I wanted to discuss them

in the context of the college campus instead. College campuses probably have a lot more to do with our current lives than political elections anyway. It might be needless to say, but echo chambers don’t just exist online. A club can be an echo chamber: The Collegian itself has attempted for years to ensure that it included a wealth of differing and varied opinions, with only varying success. Social circles can be especially effective echo chambers; it’s only natural not to want to disagree with your friends. And of course, it’s probably also needless to say that echo chambers can have a negative effect on a lot more than political opinion. They can govern the way we think of our peers or approach new experiences. I’m sure plenty of the departments on campus have negative opinions of one another;

even a few clubs on campus might have fantasies of antagonism between themselves. There’s been a lot of discussion about how easy it can be to block out any opinion that disagrees with us online, but I think it’s just as important to consider how difficult it might be to encounter differing opinions in our actual day-to-day lives. If there’s anytime in your lives you might have the opportunity to discuss controversial topics on a daily basis, it’d probably be college (despite most universities’ liberal bias). But while you might learn to empathize with a lecturer from France, or come to a better understanding of racial profiling in America, it’s just as well that you conquer some more juvenile social barriers. It’s important to remember that echo chambers affect us everyday, sometimes in so small of ways as the way we judge other students on campus.

Echo chambers harm quality of conversation, life

Social media allows people to customize what they see, decreasing the diversity of opinions people are exposed to in daily life. Trenton Gibbons News Editor Innumerable writers and other media figures have discussed the danger of echo chambers, forums of ‘discussion’ that in reality function in the service of their actors’ own confirmation biases. This is usually diagnosed as a byproduct

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The Collegian is the student newspaper of the University of Tulsa. It is distributed Mondays during the fall and spring semesters, except during holidays and final exam weeks. The University of Tulsa does not discriminate on the basis of personal status or group characteristics including but not limited to the classes protected under federal and state law. Inquiries regarding implementation of this policy may be addressed to the Office of Human Resources, 800 South Tucker Drive, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104-9700, (918)631-2616. Requests for accomodation of disabilities may be addressed to the university’s 504 Coordinator, Dr. Tawny Rigsby, (918)631-3814. To ensure availability of an interpeter, five to seven days notice is needed; 48 hours is recommended for all other accomodations. 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 noon on the Friday proir to publication. Letter Policy: Letters to the editor must be less than 500 words and can be sent to tucollegian@tucollegian.org. 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 p.m. 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 opions 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

11 September 2017

An opinion about taxes that you’ll understand, hopefully enjoy

The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision to approve a car sales tax is a disappointingly necessary decision on a highly controversial item. Kayleigh Thesenvitz Editor-In-Chief While taxes are notoriously a snooze-fest, the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s recent approval of the car sales tax sits at the center of a fascinating, non-partisan political debate and a sprinkling of drama. You may be thinking, “Gee whiz, what a massive over-exaggeration to use the words tax, non-partisan and fascinating in the same sentence.” Bear with me and you’ll see what I mean. The issue The Oklahoma Independent Auto Dealer’s Association (OIADA) filed a joint lawsuit with non-member dealerships and private citizens across the state against the Oklahoma Tax Commission to try to stop House Bill 2433, before it went into effect July 1. While covering this as breaking news about the suit for my summer internship, I interviewed Melanie Killian, Controller of Bolin Ford in Bristow, who thought the bill was unfair to customers and was underreported by popular media outlets such that customers would likely be surprised by the increase in taxes. HB 2433 removed a sales tax exemption for the sale of automobiles, adding 1.25 percent back to the revenue being collected, which is expected to give the state an additional $123 million in the next fiscal year. Leslie Osborn (R, Tuttle), the bill’s author, emphasized that coming into this session legislators faced a $1.2 billion shortfall after two years which also had substantial budget shortfalls. “We are truly at a crisis point on funding our core state services that citizens expect and deserve,” she said. As a result of the state’s funding issues, Osborn said, “All year my message, even as a Republican, was that we lowered our tax base too low.” She cited that decreases in the Gross Production Tax from seven percent to two percent and a decrease in income tax to five percent were not replaced with alternative sources of revenue. “It was imperative that we find new revenue to actually fund core services,” Osborn said, “not to grow government exponentially like people think, but to target dollars to the classroom, to teachers’ salaries, to mental health and to put programming back into prisons.” Osborn said that throughout the session bills were put forward to increase the tax, but the legislature could not get a supermajority to approve them. “The automobile excise fee was something that was rather broad based, that would hit different income levels, not disproportionately hurt the poor and it was removing an exemption that was in law,” she said. An earlier version of the bill failed, so as session was closing without a balanced budget, Osborn rewrote the bill, changing the word tax to the word fee. The bill was approved by Speaker of the House Charles McCall (R, Atoka) — this detail will become important in the fourth section, just wait — and then passed both chambers by a simple majority.

The OIADA sued the state on the grounds that the bill was passed unconstitutionally. The Oklahoma Constitution states that any revenue measure must be approved by a supermajority in both chambers of congress before the last five days of session. This fact begs the question: How did the Supreme Court come to the conclusion that something which sounds so obviously unconstitutional was, in fact, constitutional? Well, on Aug. 31, in a 5-4 split decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court concluded, “HB 2433 is not a “revenue bill” because, despite its revenue-raising purpose, it does not levy a tax in the strict sense of the word.” Luckily for all of us rightly-confused people the court gave three justifications. To save you poor readers from an ungodly block of text, the full rationale has been moved to a box off to the side which you can read if you really want to. The gist however, is that precedent dictated that making a previously exempt form of taxation subject to taxation again is not a “revenue measure” because it doesn’t levy a new tax.

The non-partisan political debate The great controversy that resulted from this issue pitted Republicans in the state House and Senate against each other on having a balanced budget and remaining within enumerated constitutional limitations on state government, and split Democrats on their love for a functioning government that can provide for the basic welfare of its citizens and their disdain for regressive taxation. To be clear, everyone wants a balanced budget. Some people want a balanced budget with few government expenditures and more private-public partnerships, emphasizing fiscal responsibility. Others want a balanced budget with high-quality funding to public institutions, emphasizing social responsibility.

In constitutional governments the constitution itself is supposed to be the highest law of the land. Immutable, except when amended by a supermajority. Even if you feel the decision was made constitutionally, you must admit that it wasn’t made by the language of the constitution, but of the legal precedent set by previous attempts at constitutional review. What this shows is that Oklahoma’s judiciary has a history of allowing for legislative prerogative. In some ways this isn’t surprising. It seems to be a carry over from both the initial intent of the federal system, that state governments have almost exclusive right to legislate within their own state, and Oklahoma’s more liberal past, which prioritized public welfare over conservative anti-government values. As a liberal in Oklahoma, this seems to be a necessary move, but also one balanced on a slippery slope. I want the government to be fully funded, so that Oklahoma’s poor can have a basic standard of quality of life. However, considering Oklahoma is predominantly a one-party state, I feel apprehension at the idea that the legislature, which overwhelmingly disagrees with my worldview, can act without significant judiciary oversight. This is the same feeling that many car salesman are surely feeling right now as well. For all of us who strongly believe in the superiority of our constitutional, threebranch system, it can be scary to see political reality warp our ideals. In my other, much more partisan opinion, I hate regressive taxation. Regressive taxation is any tax which has a greater economic impact on the poorest citizens in the community. Sales taxes are the most talkedabout form of regressive taxation, because they factor into our daily lives as consumers. For someone working a minimum wage job, making $800 a month, the 8.5 percent

“Even if you feel the decision was made constitutionally, . . . it wasn’t made by the language of the constitution.” This is a priority for everyone, but for some people other priorities rank higher. Constitutional limitations on government is one of those higher priorities for many. This includes those justices who dissented in the ruling, who stated, “There is nothing in the bill to give even a purported purpose or object other than to reach into the people’s pockets to take more money to fund state government.” While it may be easy to assume this standpoint is held only by conservatives, House Minority Leader Scott Inman (D, Del City) said, “I think the court got it wrong in this case,” referring to the presumed allowance of an unconstitutional overreach of legislative power. It is easy to see why some may still view this as a revenue raising bill. The original legislation exempting vehicle sales from a portion of the excise tax was written in 1935. The vast majority of Oklahomans have lived their whole lives without paying the full excise tax on automobiles. It becomes a challenging argument to say that something most people are experiencing for the first time isn’t new. If you hold this to be true, then the court ruling we witnessed was one in which the judiciary has decided that the legislature, in this case using a legal loophole to get out of trouble, is presumed to be acting in the state’s best interest unless proven otherwise, which is an extremely low level of scrutiny, disliked by conservatives and civil rights activists alike. I find this to be the most fascinating argument, because it pits pragmatic needs against the backbone of constitutional governments.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court decision to allow a budget change stirred up well-earned controversy.

sales tax on groceries eats up a bigger portion of their income than it does on someone making $2,000 a month buying the same groceries. With less money coming in each month, and necessities like food, housing and transportation that have to come off the top regardless of income, the poorest among us barely have enough leftover to buy a sixpack of beer, if they have anything left over at all. The car sales tax does this as well. Even an incremental increase in the tax on the sale of cars could be the difference for someone between buying a car and not. Again, for a two-car household, this means an inconvenience if you have to drive your sixteen year old to their first job. For a family with one or no vehicles, this means your kid better find a job in walking distance, and if no one is hiring because your neighborhood is oversaturated with unemployed people searching for nearby employment, then you’re screwed. However, as I said in the first, less-partisan issue, we may have to make an exception for this one tax in the grand scheme of things. Right now, Oklahoma is struggling to fund the public school system, the department of human services and healthcare programs. Each of these programs, if fully funded, will have a greater impact on the welfare of poor Oklahomans than a small increase in the sales tax on cars. This instance is an exclusion to the rule about the harmful impacts of regressive taxation, but I beg that the legislature doesn’t make regressive taxation in Oklahoma the rule.

The related drama that should not be ignored The political debate was accompanied by a political fallout, which ended in Osborn being removed from her position as the Chair of the Appropriations and Budget Committee. In response to the lawsuits being filed by the tobacco and automobile industries, Republican leadership started to distance themselves from the fee legislation which they helped to pass in the last week of session. Many Republicans who voted for the measure made public statements agreeing that the move was probably unconstitutional. McCall and House Majority Leader Mike Sanders (R-Kingfisher) then criticized the Oklahoma Department of Human Services for its decision to cut $30 million in programmatic activities, including those for seniors, the developmentally disabled and adoptive and foster families. In response, Osborn and two other legislators published a press release discussing the “mischaracterization” made by Republican leadership about the budget and the actions of various agencies. The next day, McCall, who as previously mentioned approved the fee bills to be voted on, announced to the House of Representatives that he was removing Osborn from the Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairperson position. He replaced her with Rep. Kevin Wallace, about whom he said, “I was greatly impressed with Kevin’s knowledge and capabilities of the budget process last session, and I appreciated his willingness to engage with all members of our Caucus. I believe he will serve our caucus and state well in his new role.” As this was unfurling, I found it to be a gross display of political showmanship, and a sad day for all Oklahoma women, as one of our only 14 female representatives was removed from her position of authority because a man with more power disagreed with her. Regardless of whether or not you agree with her political leanings, no one deserves to lose a job they have performed competently, simply because it is politically convenient for their boss. Oklahomans should not accept this kind of politically devious behaviour from our representatives. We should demand better. Regardless of the fact that this piece of legislation was approved, the accompanying bill which put a fee on tobacco sales was found unconstitutional. Because of that court ruling, which took $215 million from four agency budgets, Gov. Mary Fallin said she will call a special session of the Oklahoma Legislature, set to convene Sept. 25. Oklahoma Supreme Court rationale “First, our cases have long held that measures making “certain property . . . theretofore exempt from taxation . . . subject to taxation” are not “revenue bills” because removal of an exemption from an already levied tax is different from levying a tax in the first instance. Second, while that rule may seem superficially inconsistent with Article V, Section 33’s taxpayer protections, it is actually deeply rooted in our Constitution’s related policies that disfavor special exemptions from taxation and promote uniformity of taxation-policies that are also designed to protect the taxpayers. And third, because we have never before in our history held that a measure revoking a tax exemption is a “revenue bill,” and because we have explicitly held that such measures are not “revenue bills,” to hold otherwise would require us to break new ground and overrule well-established precedents. To do so would be to deprive the Legislature and the people of the legal predictability, uniformity, and clarity that it is our obligation to provide.”

graphic by Madeline Woods

Variety

11 September 2017

TAF Writer’s Salon features three up-and-coming authors

The reading included a short story, comic strips and excerpts from a novel, providing an entertaining, if not awkward, experience. Ethan Veenker Variety Editor Last Wednesday night, at around 6:30 p.m. and after a descent of not one, but two levels down in the Central library downtown, I found a cozy little basement reading room. It was complete with hip, modern looking chairs, a bar and a separate conference room. At the back of the basement abode was a stage with three chairs and a podium, there so that three authors could read from their works at this meeting of the Tulsa Artist Fellowship Writer’s Salon. The writers, in order of appearance, were Simon Han, who read a short story, Melanie Gillman, who showed us cartoon strips and Anna Badkhen, who read from her work of literary nonfiction. The reading was, at first glance, like any other: awkward, perhaps dull. That’s not to disparage the idea of authors reading from their own works, it’s just probably a side effect of my own personal preference to reading by myself instead of having things read to me. That said, I enjoyed for the most part all of the readings that night, particularly the short story by Simon Han, which I’ll detail first. Han’s story, entitled “NC-17,” speaks exactly to the disconnect I feel at author readings. He read the piece authoritatively but slowly, easy for us all to get a feel to the characters and to follow along well enough, but when he walked off the stage to a round of applause I couldn’t help but feel like I’d missed something. Now, don’t misconstrue: I loved the story. The part missing, I feel, is that a certain part of it went over my head and I couldn’t go back and reread it. The story, soon to be published in the Fence Magazine of Art, is advertised on Han’s website to have won first prize in fiction with Summer Literary Seminars and a Fence contest. It’s described by Han as being about “an immigrant child growing up in the ‘90s, trying to make sense of the world.” The child in question finds a VHS tape of “Last Tango in Paris,” an erotic drama starring Marlon Brando, which serves as a backdrop for all the boy’s sexual confusion and curiosity as the story progresses. The story ends with him confronting his father about it. He responds only with confusion, at which point his mother steps in and says “It’s a love story, but you’re too young.” Melanie Gillman, the next reader, described herself as a “queertonist,” a portmanteau of “queer” and “cartoonist.” Her cartoons, naturally, reflect on queer identity. The first three pieces she displayed and read, “Escape from Emma,” “Bill Leroy” and “Mountain Charley,” were very short. This is probably due to the lack of informa-

tion she had when writing the comics, given that they revolve around queer figures in the 19th century, a period of time in which Gillman is interested given the poor documentation of any and all queer people. She read next a piece about a monster and a human named Tumeric, two characters both presumably gender-neutral, given that they both go by the pronoun “they” in the story. The comic, of which I did not catch the name, comes from an anthology of comics entitled “The Other Side.” She lamented the current popular young adult take on queer fiction, apparently dark and full of death. To remedy this, she wanted to put together this anthology, the goal of which she stated was to have “all the fun of queer paranormal romance, but make it hella gay!” Her pieces were all hand-drawn with colored pencils. They were crisp and popped out with a faintly unique character design. Each dialogue bubble carried a little humor and childish charm, which is to say that all the comics were a little silly, but it’s clear this was intended. Her comics seem to be an effective start to introducing queer culture to the young adult population. The last author of the night was Anna Badkhen, who went straight into her reading without any exposition. The excerpt she read was from her work of literary nonfiction, “Walking with Abel.” Without context I was at first only able to glean that she was with a nomadic tribe of some sort, driving cattle and playing music from cell phones and boomboxes. After finishing this first excerpt, she explained the nomadic tribe was the Fulani people of Africa, with whom she stayed to gather information for her book. She read two more excerpts, one in which she described the origin and nature of the universe (i.e. The Big Bang, heliocentrism, etc.) to a few tribesmen, and another in which she explained the evolutionary origins of man. It was interesting to get the almost naïve perspective of the Fulani, who adhered to the plausibility of both of her explanations and ended both subjects with “Good story.” Her intention wasn’t to educate the Fulani people, but rather to live alongside and learn from them; the subjects about which she read just happened to come up in her time with them. Her work was tactfully and fluently written, making for a work of nonfiction that can keep a reader engrossed and interested. When all the readings were done, I expected the three authors to come sit in the chairs on stage for a Q&A. This didn’t happen; TU’s own Grant Jenkins, who hosted the event, bid us farewell and the crowd around me got up and mingled. A little disappointed, I left and considered the three works I’d heard from, hoping maybe to have my own time to digest them fully at a later date.

The Collegian: 9

Guest authors bring new techniques to TU Saturday’s Poetry Symposium included a few authors who discussed their relation to poetry and offered their own workshop techniques. Savanna DeWeese Student Writer “We all have to be crazy to want to write because there’s no sort of ‘Pot of Gold’ at the end of this rainbow,” Dr. Jenkins, a poetry professor at TU and long term resident of Tulsa, said Saturday morning after welcoming three distinguished guest poets to campus for the Poetry Symposium. The guests included Lee Ann Brown, a working poet in New York, whose writing centers around hymns and ballads she grew up with, Julie Patton, who also came to Tulsa from New York City, focusing on poetry as a performance art as well as curating artist-housing projects and finally Elizabeth Robinson, who has published over twelve different collections of poetry. The symposium began at 10 a.m. with short talks from each poet about their respective roots, self-discovery and poetic ethics. All three of these visiting poets expressed how the need to form language into poetry had been ingrained in them since childhood. Robinson took particular interest to the stories her father told her before bed. She recalled the magical, transportational effect of his stories and how she felt a deep connection with the characters. She wants to mimic the magic her father made in her own writings. Both Patton and Brown were captivated at a young age by the slow, meditative nature of hymns and how sound moves through the air and through the mouth. They focus on rhythmic work that doesn’t necessarily make any tangible sense, but moves the reader through the poem with sound association and word play. After the lunch break the symposium moved into three breakout workshops, each taught by a different visiting poet. Brown’s workshop guided the participants through a series of association. They wrote short,

acrostic poems (vertical poems in which each line starts with a corresponding letter in the word) dedicated to the first word they could think of. Some writers wrote odes to people in their life and used the name for the acrostic, while others used random words that came to mind like “Britches” and “Tulsa.” Robinson’s workshop began with five minutes of free writing to create a poem and then used the rest of the time to deconstruct that poem.This class looked at pieces from Ezra Pound’s Sapphos for inspiration, and attempted to boil down each poet’s work into a few simple words strategically placed on the page. Patton’s workshop focused entirely around disassociating from everything but sound. They guided each other throughout the hallways of Zink, blindfolded, with soothing voices, jarring onomatopoeias and a cacophony of indiscernible noises. The point of her workshop was to “set the soul free” and begin to think of poetry as playtime instead of work. About twenty or so students, local writers and curious onlookers came to the Poetry Symposium. The day may have had a little too much of the ‘60s flower child mentality for some people, but the students and local writers who went were all welcomed into an atmosphere of free thought, free association and free tacos for lunch, and each person took some sort of changed ideal, new mantra or inspiration home with them. Much of the lecture time was spent discussing how poetry relates to and shapes the world around us, and how poets and writers can be aware of and use that in their work. Robinson came to the conclusion that everything comes down to love. What we love, and how we pour that into our communities, friends and families, or how we don’t. Patton urged the attendees to rid themselves of their suffocating metal boxes, free their spirit and go write operas with your good friends in local cafes. While visiting poet Brown reminded everyone that writing in itself is a spiritual practice that guides and shapes the writer on their perfect journey.

courtesy University of Tulsa

The Poetry Symposium was an all-day event on Saturday, featuring guest poets and a workshop.

Unique dishes shine at Manos Peruanas

Tulsa’s other Peruvian restaurant, Manos Peruanas, sells good food but at a bit of a price. Michaela Flonard Managing Editor

Last year, I reviewed a Peruvian place for the Collegian, and this year, I found yet another one in town: Manos Peruanas. This place was a few streets past Woodland Hills, set in a strip mall, with images of their food plastering the windows from outside. Inside, the place was lined with comfortable seating and flags on each table. We ended up being the only ones in the restaurant when we went on a Friday night, so as we ate the owner watched fútbol on the television across from us.

The menu at Peruanas doesn’t only feature Peruvian entrees. They have starters and entrees that are Peruvian and otherwise international. The international section doesn’t specify the country of origin, and isn’t as large as the Peruvian section. Most of the items on the menu are also pictured above the listings to visualize what you’re ordering, which is helpful to those uncertain of the culture, although the descriptions of each are quite lengthy. The menu items are all over $10, so if you’re looking for a dinner date under that, this might not be the place for you. They also didn’t have a fancy drink menu, so if you also require that with your meals, perhaps look elsewhere. For our meal, we ordered mofongo, an international dish, and two Peruvian dishes, arroz chaufa, and lomo saltado. Ordering was a little difficult because of a slight lan-

Manos Peruanas’s lomo saltado (left) and arroz chaufa (right) were solid Peruvian entrees.

guage barrier. Mofongo, a traditional Puerto Rican dish, came out in a large porcelain bowl, and ended up being enough to take home. At Peruanas, the dish can be accompanied by chicken, beef, shrimp or vegetables, and I chose chicken. The chicken came shredded amongst fried plantains and pork cracklings. The plantains were mashed to a variety of standards, some thick chunks and some more mashed, which gave it variety of texture. A mayo-like sauce covered the top of the dish, but wasn’t as noticeable when mixed in. While a little salty, the dish was comforting and good. Arroz chaufa is a dish influenced by Chinese immigrants, was a Peruvian interpretation of fried rice. The plate was lined with chopped, fried plantains, but the inside was fried rice with egg and chicken. The dish was piled high, and was reminiscent of a fried rice elsewhere, with a soy

sauce background flavor. Lomo saltado is a dish of rice, french fries and beef. The beef was expertly cooked as to be tender and not chewy, with a good seasoning. Eventually, the fries became soggy from the moisture of the beef and what it was cooked in, so if you’re not a fan of soggy fries, avoid this dish. The rice then mixed in well, however, creating a mess of taste and texture. As we were full by the end of the meal, we didn’t end up trying any of the desserts, which while few, still looked good. If you’re looking for Peruvian food, Tulsa now offers two restaurants to choose from. Manos Peruanas, while a little more expensive and further out than Pachac Peruvian, is just as good. Peruanas has a variety of dishes to let you try another culture without moving there.

photos by Michaela Flonard

The Collegian: 10

Variety

11 September 2017

“It” gives minor scares, has great personality The best movie based off a Stephen King novel that we’ve had in a while, “It” carries more charm than scares. Ethan Veenker Variety Editor

2017 hasn’t been the best year for film, especially for not for films adapted from Stephen King novels, but in the last quarter of the year we finally have a film that can subvert both of those conditions: “It.” Adapted from Stephen King’s novel of the same name, “It” is an arguable reboot of the story; its first time on a screen was in 1990, with Tim Curry starring as Pennywise, the titular antagonist. His role is remembered through honeyed lenses as the best part of the TV miniseries. Bill Skarsgård, however, brings the role back to infamy with his own performance as Pennywise, both terrifying and slightly endearing at times. For those who have begun reading a movie review and didn’t expect any spoilers, please tread lightly below. The story of “It”

from her father, and her encounter with Pennywise involved an obscene amount of blood gurgling and spraying forth from her bathroom sink. This scene plays on an earlier moment in the film where we see her struggling to choose which type of tampon to purchase in a pharmacy. As she approaches the other characters she hides the box behind her, and later when her father asks her what she bought she says “Just stuff.” The blood spurting forth speaks to her fear of growing up and becoming a woman, a fear that involves both increased sexual aggression from her father and the process of menstruation. I would say that the film excels at the ageold writing adage of “show, don’t tell,” and Beverly’s encounter certainly supports that idea, but little else of the film is left to the viewer to determine themselves. Each other character explicitly states their fear and how Pennywise got to them, making Beverly the only one who doesn’t explain to the audience what all the blood meant. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. The movie runs at a breakneck pace and,

“...within the first five minutes a young boy loses his right arm...” revolves around a group of young friends in the town of Derry, Maine. The film begins with Georgie, the younger brother of our main protagonist, Bill, being brutally delimbed on screen. I wasn’t sure how willing this movie was to portray violence against children on screen, but within the first five minutes we see a young boy lose his right arm, so it set a brutal precedent. After a time jump of about eight months, the real events of the story begin to unfold. One by one, Bill and all of his friends have encounters with Pennywise that all capitalize on the character’s worst fear. For example, the character of Mike reveals later in the story that both of his parents perished in a house fire, and that he could hear them banging on the door as they burned. Mike’s encounter involves a padlocked door suddenly stretching at its hinges while a dozen pairs of burnt, mangled hands force through and bang on the door and the wall. The characters piece together what’s happening, realize that Pennywise feeds first on their fear and then on their flesh and set out into the sewers to stop the menace once and for all. On paper it almost sounds like a young adult novel, but the film (and the book, presumably) deal with far heavier themes. These stronger themes are most prevalent around Beverly, the only female protagonist. There is a strong implication of sexual abuse

while a lot of the scenes are individually slow, there’s ultimately not enough time to allow the viewer to figure things out for themselves. The movie doesn’t want the viewer getting lost, and that’s something I can understand. On the subject of pacing, I applaud this film’s distance from the mean in terms of horror movies as a genre. The typical horror flick makes you want to look away from the screen, even the laughably bad ones (or maybe that’s just me?). This isn’t necessarily because the content is scary itself, but because the typical horror crutch is to rely on “jumpscares” that the audience comes to expect, and thus wants to avoid getting spooked by. I found myself morbidly involved with “It,” both scared at points but also unable to look away. I would say that, as far as horror movies go, that is a great success. The characters were wonderfully developed, and I found myself really rooting for them at times. I was elated to see their arcs smooth themselves out, and I was worried for them when they got into binds. The pacing, again, while fast in general, was slow during the real suspenseful, spooky scenes. This allowed plenty of panic to build up in my brain, screaming for the characters to do something. I cared for them, and I’m glad to have shared the journey with them. Their casting was spot on. Each character

“World War I: 1917, The Yanks are Coming,” the newest appearance from McFarlin’s Special Collections, provides an intriguing, historical experience.

to the US announcing entry into the war as well as other photos and documents showing US mobilization. Photographs, letters from soldiers and a Medallion for American Volunteers in the French Army follow. A third table depicts propaganda and a timeline of the Russian Revolution, which began in 1917 as well. The fourth table has a collection of photographs and books about various battles that year, including Canadian glass slides of capture of Vimy Ridge and the fight at Passchendaele. The exhibit ends with propaganda posters involving a mix of emphasizing the importance of bread to the war effort and goodold-fashioned racism. Whether you’re a World Wars scholar or slept through high school history, Special Collections has a knack for putting together an exhibit that provides something new to learn for everyone. If you find yourself looking for ways to procrastinate on your homework this semester, you should go peruse the shelves, and maybe even gain some inspiration.

came to life within the first 15 minutes of the film. You could tell who everyone was supposed to be, even if they fit into certain archetypes. The kid with the stutter, the jokester, the germaphobe, the (perceived) slut, the bully, the fat kid, etc. These are stereotypes, I admit, but these are also real personalities that real people can have, and the characters as presented seemed real to me. Whether this was a triumph of the film or of Stephen King’s writing I can’t say. I imagine it’s a healthy mix of the two. All praise aside, the film did have its fair share of tropes. There was an occasional jumpscare and the trademark violin swell before spooky things happened. In certain scenes the framing heavily implied something crazy was about to go down, something I’m not sure the director should give their audience a hint at. Questionable character decisions and ambitions were abound, something I’m also not sure if I should attribute to the film or to Stephen King. Horror is a trope-filled genre, though, and it’s hard to make these films clear of tropes anyway. In some cases, they’re really not that bad. A lot of the jumpscares in “It” (of which there aren’t many to begin with) are actually just red herrings, things that are completely benign. The audience gets to feel how strung out the characters are. Is this a cheap movie technique? Perhaps, but if you can make me feel what the characters are feeling then, again, I think you’ve succeeded. The movie does plenty else to set itself apart. The cinematography, while not earthshattering, is excellent. There’s tons of little details in the set design that reward the attentive viewer. The soundtrack is mostly subtle but effective for what it sets out to accomplish, and some really interesting camera techniques are put into play. To list two such techniques, in one scene a character, Stan, fixes a crooked frame on the wall. The perspective is from the paint-

ing’s as he rotates it, making the camera angle also spin until he’s standing straight up and down from the viewer’s perspective. The other technique involves a bizarre scene in which Pennywise is dancing. This scene, very near the climax, is actually motiontracked to his head, meaning that his face stays completely still and motionless while the rest of his body, and the area around him for that matter, jumps up and down erratically with his dance. I can’t decide if I loved or hated the latter trick, but it was at least interesting and unnerving. All in all, “It” is solid. Very solid. It felt more like a movie than a horror movie. It told a story, an intriguing one and it was spooky along the way. The characters are great, the script is wonderful, the mood is appropriately handled, the tone is coherent and the plot is easy to follow. My one big fault with the film is the unsatisfying conclusion, something that, again, a lot of horror films struggle with. I’ll at least say that it was better than King’s version in the novel, which I’ll refrain from mentioning here but that I recommend the morbidly interested to research themselves (or read the book, it’s only around 1100 pages). The movie ended with the words “It: Chapter I,” which means of course we’re getting a second part (it is in fact already greenlit and planned for release in 2019). Given the dialogue that went along with the end, it’s implied that the second part will revolve around the same group of characters, back in Derry as adults. I can’t see how the second part will force more character sympathy from me (it’s easier to sympathize with children than adults, especially when the antagonist is a big scary fear-eating monster), but if they stick to the same guns they did with part one, I’d bet it’ll be pretty good.

courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Skarsgård’s performance as Pennywise truly evoked discomfort, and sometimes terror.

New WWI exhibit unveiled on 5th floor of library Kayleigh Thesenvitz Editor-in-Chief

In my four years at TU, I try to make the time each semester to make the trip up to Special Collections on the fifth floor of McFarlin Library. Special Collections is where the library stores its old and rare books and documents, many of which could fall apart if handled without care. This semester the history buffs upstairs have put together an exhibit titled, “World War I: 1917, The Yanks are Coming.” The title is fairly self-explanatory, as the exhibit depicts America’s entry into the first Great War and other crucial events within the year that tipped the scales in favor of the Triple Entente. Upon admittance, the first table displays President Woodrow Wilson’s proclamation

photos by Kayleigh Thesenvitz

11 September 2017

Variety

The Collegian: 11

Artist inspires Tulsa natives to take a closer look

“Unexpected Views,” a photography exhibit in Tyrell Hall, provides an introspective and aesthetically pleasing experience. Cheyanne Wheat Student Writer

To my surprise, Artist Anitra Lavenhar is not originally from Tulsa. Tulsa became her home 17 years ago. This project was inspired by her move to a new “home.” She had a hard time feeling comfortable and at peace here. Through her photography, she found a sense of serenity. “Homeland is any place where you can see the beauty all around you and know that you are a part of it.” She loves to explore alleyways and warehouses where history and imagination can intermingle. Urban and industrial landscapes are her specialty and her passion for this collection. As you peek in, photographs lined the walls of Tyrell Hall. Thirteen different snapshots showcasing the central theme: Homelands. Walking among the crowd, I heard talk of “nostalgia” and “back home.” Faces lit up with memories and rekindling feelings of youth. The pieces varied from monochromatic to color pop. Lavenhar has exquisite attention to reflections and lighting. Many of her photos are isometric views of buildings creating an effect of it leaping out of

the frame. Sparking a conversation with the artist, I quickly learned 70 percent of the collection was captured on her iPhone. The quality of the photos was unbelievable. I was astounded by this fact. She would explore town in her leisure time and always had her iPhone on hand. In regards to the editing, there was very little alteration; most of the effects came from her skill of light play. Each image allowed your imagination to run wild. Envisioning us jumping into the photo like Steve from Blues Clues, we created stories among ourselves. In a particular photo of a blue house with an overgrown yard, we imagined the life of Manic Pixie Dream girl. All her life, she lived in this quaint house as happy as one could be, then to be released into a big city to fill her wildest dreams to be a journalist. I gave the petname “Tulsa’s Death Star,” to another one of Lavenhar’s pieces because of how it mimicked the Star Wars Galactic weapon. The photo had circular and reflective surfaces appearing as a shiny metallic finish. In actuality, it is of a pond of water under a low bridge. Also, a particular photo caught my eye for its color and symmetry similar to Wes Anderson’s style. A photo of a yellow shop reminded me of the Tulsa’s large population of immigrant business owners. Each photo allowed the viewer to experience many anecdotes Tulsa tells.

Leaving the exhibit, I felt remarkably inspired. There is beauty surrounding us that we take for granted. As a native Tulsan, I fail to see the beauty of my city through my jaded eyes. But for this night, I saw my city through fresh young eyes. Like reviving a

spark in lost passion, I was reminded of my childhood and my love for my hometown. “Unexpected Views” was a powerful collection of artistry, skill, and sheer nostalgia.

photos by Cheyanne Wheat

“Perceived Contrasts” challenges division between art and science

The Living Arts gallery is hosting “Perceived Contrasts,” an exhibit which creates art from paleontological and anatomical images. Adam Lux Satire Editor

“Perceived Contrasts” is an art exhibit currently open at the Living Arts gallery in Tulsa, which seeks to blur the line between scientific research and artistic creation. Last Thursday Living Arts hosted a panel with all the artist-scientists whose work was featured in the exhibit to talk about their research, their artwork and the intersection of these two aspects of their lives. The panelists were Kerin Claeson, Paul Gignac, Haley O’Brien and Holly Wood-

ward, all of whom are researchers in the field of paleontology. During their talks, the panelists obviously spoke about their individual areas and methods of research. Many of them spoke about the field work they are involved in, which takes them to places like northern Alaska, Lake Victoria in Africa and even Antarctica. They also addressed the question of why paleontological research is important and presented answers from medical advancements to factory work-flow improvements. While their research was fascinating, possibly more interesting was their reasoning behind the exhibit. These scientists are trying to disturb the caricature of what a researcher is like and instead bring to light the multi-faceted truth. They take issue with the idea of a staunch left-brained vs rightbrained person and instead are exploring the strong interconnections between the sup-

posedly separate analytical and creative aspects of human beings. The artists are also exploring how expressing their research as art can help make scientific research most accessible to the public. This purpose was evident in the works themselves. Each piece was created using some form of photography or imaging, some using more traditional cameras while others were created using MRIs or microscopes. The artist have taken the paleontological and anatomical images used in their research and creatively modified and reframed them to highlight the natural beauty of the fossils and specimens they work with. Each piece contains both important scientific information and aesthetic value which simultaneously remind the observer of the beauty of science, and the importance of art. The science behind some of the pieces add another dimension to the art. An MRI

image of an alligators skull was used to find information about muscle structure in tyrannosaur skulls and polarized light pictures of armadillo femurs are used to study growth patterns of early mammals. This extra dimension to the art exemplifies the similarities in how analytical and creative endeavors treat information. Extracting meaning and information from images this exhibit does as a collection of art and as a collection of science. Dr. O’Brien summed up the reasoning and execution of the exhibit fantastically during her talk when she said “Science and art are two of the best ways to ask hard questions about who we are.” “Perceived Contrasts” will be running through September 22nd at Living Arts gallery next to the Guthrie Green. More information can be found on Living Arts’s website.

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The State-Run Media

11 September 2017

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State-Run media The Prince Edward of Journalism

College student receives life advice from estranged childhood friend A TU student has recently become reacquainted with an old ‘friend’ with a wealth of prophetic advice. Trenton Gibbons Reads fortune cookies

Trump and Un agreeing to end this nonsense in front of the Duchess.

graphic by Madeline Woods

World forgets threat of nuclear holocaust because OMG there’s going to be a new royal baby Royal fetus saves humanity from nuclear war. Sara Serrano Has $50 on it being a girl In a special White House press briefing on Monday, President Donald Trump stood before the nation to announce that after speaking at length with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, the two have finally agreed upon nuclear disarmament. Responding to a question about the terms of the agreement, Trump said: “Well, I saw on the television today that there’s going to be a new royal baby, so I thought to myself, ‘Don, all this stuff with the nukes and missiles? No one’s going to be paying attention to that now. Better just call it quits. Focus on something else.’ So I got Mr. Kim on the phone and he completely agreed.” Trump declined to comment on what he now plans to focus on. With economic sanctions doing nothing to deter the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and the promise of “fire and fury” from President Trump in return, the continued escalation of tension between the two countries seemed inevitable. But now that the Duchess of Cambridge is expecting her third child, the world can now breathe a collective sigh of relief. “I’m just so happy to be of help.” said Kate Middleton in an impromptu meeting

with the press. “Getting the attention of the entire world is sort of my speciality. I just hope George and Charlotte don’t become jealous of their new sibling because their own births didn’t stop the nuclear annihilation of the planet.” Middleton is now five weeks pregnant with possibly the single most important piece of diplomacy to come out of the United Kingdom in the last 100 years. With all eyes fixed on her new baby, no world leader will dare try to take attention away from it. It is safe to say that the Earth is entering a new era of world peace and people are most definitely pleased. “Oh yeah, yeah I’m so down for the world peace!” said student Leslie Donovan. “But even more so for the little babe coming into this world! I just love babies!” “Sure, things are looking great now that the baby’s just a sweet bundle of nerves,” said Marcus Kant, “but what about when Kate gets a sonogram? It might be a girl! You think Trump and Kim are just going to stay quiet while a chick steals their thunder?” All this aside, there are still questions that need to be answered. When is Kate’s due date? Where will the baby be born? What will they name the baby? Who will be the baby’s godparents? What does this mean for the royal line of succession? All of these concerns and more must be addressed if the public is to remain distracted.

University of Tulsa junior Jimmy Ballon has reportedly been receiving “priceless life advice” from estranged childhood friend Billy Fahler. Fahler originally messaged Ballon under an unknown number, with every text beginning with the words, “Old Friend,” followed by cryptic advice. After some investigating, Ballon realized the identity of the number to be Billy Fahler, a boy he had not seen since middle school, nor heard of since a horse-tranquilizer incident in a mutual acquaintances’ basement. The texts, usually sent by Fahler between the hours of 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., were routinely left unread by Ballon until the late afternoon, when he had time after lunch and “the patience to deal with this kind of shit.” On Aug. 25, after Ballon confirmed to Fahler a third time that he would be continuing his college education and had in fact already registered for courses, Fahler sent a message reading, “Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught ;).” He did not credit the quote to Oscar Wilde, though the addition of the winking emoticon can be said to make the message wholly original. Many of Fahler’s messages subscribe to this heavily anti-school sentiment, despite his own frequent references to the sixth and seventh grades as “those golden years.” This

nostalgia does also run somewhat contradictory to his twice-sent message (once with an indecent typo) that “The best is yet to come,” received by Ballon not long before the revelation that Fahler was now living out of a Day’s Inn. “The university was not made for us big thinkers, old friend,” Fahler once said. “Now I have the time to read Socrates, Plato, Kant. All the great Greek philosophers.” Fahler’s personal library, as reported in the police raid of his hotel room, contained only Sparknotes annotations. Other noteworthy messages received by Ballon from Fahler read, “Buy land, because God isn’t making any more of it,” “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero,” and once even a literal grocery list of foods that could be homegrown if one found themselves banned from their local supermarket. The most recent message of Fahler’s that Ballon is aware of reads, “There are no bad people, you know? Just good people stuck in bad situations.” Whether or not this is actually the last message Fahler sent to Ballon is unknown at this time, as Ballon’s phone was soon after confiscated by the police as evidence in an ongoing investigation. Ballon was reportedly made especially willing to cooperate with the police after Fahler’s admittance to him that he was “ready to open up to [Ballon] like never before.” This message came after just two weeks and fourteen private messages. Ballon’s only reported response to any one of these messages was, “Who is this?”

Screenshot of the conversation between Fahler and Ballon.

graphic by Ethan Veenker

Look, I enjoy yoga, not butts

Noted male, Sam Beckmann, explains how his enjoyment of yoga has nothing to do with looking at womens’ posteriors. Sam Beckmann Perfected the Wounded Peacock

Man totally not staring at a woman’s ass.

graphic by Madeline Woods

It’s come to my attention there has been some speculation that I’m only interested in yoga to see people’s butts. I’d like to let everyone know that this is simply not true. My interest in the ancient and sacred art of yoga most definitely stems from the numerous benefits it provides, and nothing whatsoever with the completely circumstantial fact that it places large, round, jiggly asses in the air for extended periods of time. When I think of yoga, my thoughts don’t go to tight buns, but instead to the subliminal beauty of

watching a human contort themselves into a perfect upside-down “V” to complete the downward-facing dog: hands spread out in front, feet flat on the ground, booty perfectly aligned at the peak. Plus, erections are totally common when doing complex, chakra-aligning exercises, and are most decidedly not the result of staring at my partner’s posterior. It’s like you don’t know the first thing about yoga. I’m tired of ignorant people mistaking my love of stretching with a carnal desire to observe members of the opposite sex for extended periods of time. Finally, I’d like to also take this time to clarify that my love of the cobra pose has to do with the many muscles it stretches, and is absolutely not related to the fact that it manages to impressively put both butts and boobs on full display. I figured I should clear that up once and for all.