Collegian Issue 10, Vol. 98

Campus remembers John Baluh p. 4

a student newspaper of the university of tulsa

november 5, 2012 issue 10 ~ volume 98

Jim Bridenstine

John Olson

Q&A with Jim Bridenstine and John Olson Victoria McGouran Witt Womack Walker Womack J. Christopher Proctor Election Day is tomorrow, and important races are coming down to the wire, both at the national and state levels.

In the presidential race, President Barack Obama maintains a slim lead in national polls and a decent advantage in the Electoral College, but with numerous swing states still undecided, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney could still pull off the victory if afforded enough support.

At the state level, the congressional race between Democrat John Olson and

Republican Jim Bridenstine for Oklahoma’s First District—which includes Tulsa and Bartlesville—is drawing towards an exciting conclusion. Independent Craig Allen is also contesting the seat.

Though the district has only elected one Democrat since 1948, conditions may be favorable for a potential change in political party. Bridenstine narrowly upset Republican incumbent John Sullivan in the GOP primary, creating an unexpected open-seat race.

The following is a question and answer with the two major candidates, Olson and Bridenstine. Olson was interviewed in person while Bridenstine was interviewed via e-mail correspondence.

The responses have been edited for brevity and clarity. For full interviews visit The Collegian on Facebook.

Q: Why do you think you should represent Oklahoma’s First Congressional District?

Bridenstine: I am committed to upholding the Founders’ vision for the United States as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

I am committed to restoring fiscal responsibility within the Congress. Today we are incurring debt that will jeopardize the economic and personal security of future generations.

My life experience, academic achievement, demonstrated leadership and service to our country show that I am well prepared to represent Oklahoma’s 1st District.

Olson: Well, I think I’d bring a commonsense approach to Washington. That’s something that my opponents—neither one of them—have really done.

They’re both bound up with ideology.

And when you look at the issues that we’ve been talking about—when you look at taxes, when you look at energy, when you look at those things, the platform that I’ve run on and the platforms that they’ve run on are very different things, and I am very much more aligned with the people in the district.

Q: Are there any topics on which you disagree with the mainstream Democratic/Republican party?

Bridenstine: I favor limited government and good stewardship of the federal taxes paid by the people and companies of Oklahoma. I am a fiscal conservative and believe we must have and implement a plan to restore federal fiscal responsibility.

Many people identifying with the Republican Party believe this also, but in past years some Republicans have contributed to allowing federal spending to grow at unsustainable rates.

Olson: I think that I’m concerned about the right to bear arms. I believe that the right to bear arms is written out in the Constitution and so you should have the right to do that.

I support the Second Amendment I have an “A” rating by the NRA.

Q: What will be your three highest priorities if you are sent to Congress?

Bridenstine: One: balance the federal budget. Two: repeal ObamaCare and replace it with health care reforms that address real needs while not raising taxes or compromising doctor-patient relationships. Three: pursue North American energy independence.

Olson: Budget, energy, and education. The first thing I want to get done is pass a budget. The second thing that I think is very important is the NATGAS Act. Education is a big thing—every other country in the world is investing in it, and if we don’t (invest), then we’re going to be left behind.

Q: Do you think the federal government has a role in education, and what should we do to improve a system that both sides perceive has serious flaws?

Bridenstine: The Department of Education is a fact and millions of students and most universities and colleges depend on the Department of Education for student loans and institutional funding.

However, decisions concerning education are best made by the states and localities where educational institutions are sited.

Over time, federal oversight of education should diminish and the responsibilities and funding now channeled through the Department of Education should be distributed to the states and localities, and in the case of private universities, to the trustees of those institutions.

Olson: Education on a whole does have a federal component because it is in our national interest to have a well-educated workforce that can compete with the rest of the world.

At the federal level we pushed for No Child Left Behind, but the federal government never funded it, and so we pushed all those requirements on the states and said “Now you pay for them.” And I don’t think that’s the right approach.

We’ve got both of those levels, and at the end of the days we’ve got to invest in education, not cut education funding, not try to do away with the Department of Education.

Q: Economic inequality has increased in America since the early 1980’s. What do you think caused this shift? Is it problem for our country?

Bridenstine: Economic outcomes diverge for multiple reasons. One major factor is that the number of single-parent households has grown dramatically, and singleparent households are much more likely to fall into poverty than traditional two-parent households.

People in entry-level jobs earn less than experienced employees. Over time, entrylevel employees increase their income.

These kinds of economic inequalities are inevitable in a free society and become a problem for our country only when politicians encourage envy to advance their own political agendas.

Olson: Back in the 1980s, I think that the top CEOs were making about 187 times what the average worker was making. And, that rate has gone to about 487 times what the average worker is making, so it’s tripled.

That’s because of tax cuts and loopholes that very rich people have been able to take advantage of, which costs us revenues going into the system that helps and benefits everybody.

We’ve got to go back to the tax rates under President Clinton when the happy debate that we had in Congress was “what do we do with all the surplus?”

Q: In your opinion, what caused the economic collapse of 2008 and the ensuing recession?

Bridenstine: The recession that began in 2007 was caused by Congress compelling financial institutions to loosen historically sound home lending standards with the objective that anyone who wanted to purchase a home should be able to do so without regard to ability to make payments on a home mortgage.

Additionally, the Federal Reserve’s “easy money” policy artificially kept loan payments and the cost of financing of new housing construction low. The result was a run-up in the price of new homes and the creation of a housing “bubble” where housing values were unrealistically high.

Olson: The financial collapse was caused by too much deregulation and banks doing crazy things and making dangerous bets with other people’s money and nobody watching over to see what they were doing.

The debt was caused by two wars that we didn’t pay for and tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans.

So those two things came together at that perfect storm under the Bush Administration and created the recession that we are now in recovery from.

(Regulation) puts everybody on a level playing field- meaning: that companies that are trying to do the right thing are not put at an economic disadvantage.

See Q & A on page 3

Sports

5 November 2012

the Collegian : 2

Golden Hurricane fails to upset Razorbacks

A close game resulted in a loss for the Hurricane to the University of Arkansas Razorbacks’ at UA’s homecoming game this weekend.

John Lepine Student Writer

The University of Tulsa football team fell 19–15 in a close contest with the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday before the smallest crowd in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium since 2007.

Tulsa (7–2, 5­–0 C-USA), which has not recorded a win in the series since 1976, saw its sevengame winning streak snapped. The Razorbacks (4–5, 2–3 SEC) had snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Hurricane at their last meeting in 2008.

TU varied its style of play considerably to cope with what Head Coach Bill Blankenship called a “big, physical SEC defensive line.”

“They pushed us into our passing game,” Blankenship added, “and I thought we operated that very well.”

Starting quarterback Cody Green, who missed TU’s homecoming game due to a shoulder injury, made 22 completions in 37 passing attempts. In what has been a predominantly run-happy season, his 222 net yards passing outweighed the Hurricane’s 106 rushing yards, with power back Alex Singleton playing a conspicuously minor role.

Trey Watts, also back from injury, was the Hurricane’s favorite rusher against the Hogs, getting the ball 19 times, and tallying 4.6 yards per carry, including a 29-yard touchdown run in the second

quarter.

TU won the turnover battle, nabbing an interception and returning a fumble for 33 yards, but missed opportunities and fizzled finishes plagued the Hurricane, which only converted three of 15 third downs and failed on two of four fourth-down conversions.

Freshman kicker Daniel Schwarz, mercilessly taunted by a rowdy Razorback student section, missed two points after touchdown and a 42-yard field goal. Those five points could have made the

because we got down into the red zone and we didn’t get points,” said Green, “We have to put points on the board down there.”

Tulsa took over the ball with under three minutes left at the end of both halves but was not able to make anything of those possessions. After an offensive pass interference call on Keyarris Garrett that left many TU fans booing, TU elected not to use its timeouts to try to squeeze in a last-minute drive to finish the first half. Incomplete passes and a costly fumble spelled

Amanda Schenk Student Writer

The University of Tulsa men’s and women’s cross-country teams turned out impressive results in Hattiesburg, Miss. on Oct. 29, with the men winning their third consecutive Conference USA Championship and the women finishing second for the second year in a row.

In conference competition, nine members of each team race, with the top five finishes counting toward team score. The placements of the five winning placeholders are summed to give the overall team score, and the team with the lowest overall score wins the event.

The men’s top five finishers all placed in the top 10 overall, giving them a team score of 25, the best Golden Hurricane team score in conference competition history.

biggest rivalry game.

Houston, which has traded wins with Tulsa in the last three meetings, departs Conference USA for the Big East in 2013. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Women’s basketball strong at exhibition

Paula Brown / Collegian

TIffany Cousinard reaches for the basket on at the women’s basketball exhibition on Wednesday night. The Golden Hurricane trounced Rogers State 88–50 thanks to a resounding team effort on the scoreboard. Taleya Mayberry had 20 points, Lauren McDaniel scored 13 and Ashley Clark sunk 12.

J. Christopher Proctor / Collegian

Tulsa defender runs Razorback Dennis Johnson out of bounds as Arkansas advances toward their game-winning touchdown.

difference for Tulsa, but so could a third-quarter drive that sputtered out with four failed attempts at the Arkansas 5-yard line.

The Hurricane was also forced to settle for field goals twice on trips to the end zone, but a roughing the kicker penalty called back one of those field goals and allowed TU to punch in an Alex Singleton 1-yard touchdown, his 35th career rushing TD. “It hurts worse

the end of any game-changing heroics that TU might have had in mind in the second half.

All nine Hurricane runners placed in the top 25. Rounding out the top three at the championship were the University of Texas-El Paso and Rice, with team scores of 56 of 78, respectively.

The women’s top five finishers placed in the top 16 overall, with all nine runners placing in the top 30. Their overall team score was 57, falling a mere 19 points behind victor SMU’s 38 but significantly ahead of third-place East Carolina’s team score of 123.

“The maturity of the upperclassmen was big,” said Head Coach Steve Gulley “They ran well and put us in a comfortable position from the first mile on. It was chilly and a tough course, but they ran well. The women ran great. SMU just ran a better race than we did.

We were a little disappointed, but overall the women ran great.”

The men’s team was lead by senior Chris O’Hare, who ran the men’s 8k in 24 minutes, 3.2 seconds and placed second overall.

Leading the women’s team for the women’s 5k was senior Sarah Macpherson, who placed fifth

It’s Harden to say goodbye Oklahoma City has lost a third of their “Big Three,” but the trade that took shooting guard James Harden to Houston isn’t all bad news for the Thunder.

Zak Patterson Student Writer

Hurricane victorious at C-USA Cross County Championship Cross country won C-USA Chapionship men’s first and women’s second places last weekend.

Despite the loss, the Golden Hurricane remains undefeated in conference play as it travels again next weekend to take on the Houston Cougars (4–5, 3–2 C-USA) in the last iteration of the C-USA’s

overall with a time of 17 minutes, 11.8 seconds.

Adding to the Hurricane pride in the meet, Andrew Heyes was named Outstanding Senior of the Meet. Heyes, who is in his second year at the TU, formerly competed at the University of Oxford.

With conference competition completed, the Hurricane is looking to the Midwest Regional Championships. Racing at the regional championships will be slightly restructured from C-USA, with a limit of seven runners per team rather than nine. Regionals increases the racing distance as well, with the men racing a 10k and the women racing a 6k.

The Midwest Regional Championships will be held on Nov. 9 in Springfield, Mo., with the top two teams earning an automatic bid to nationals. The men have high hopes of qualifying for nationals, and while the women need a strong race to finish in the top two, they proved they could produce excellent results at the conference championships.

Photo courtesy Diane Krieg

O’Hare and Heyes lead the Hurricane to victory in the men’s 8K at the C-USA Cross Country Championship in Hattiesburg, Mississippi last weekend.

“Fear the beard” no more. It is gone. The beard is gone.

Due to the Oklahoma City Thunder owner Sam Presti and James Harden’s inability to negotiate a contract, the much-loved, bearded wonder Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets, along with fillers, for former AllStar Kevin Martin, rookie Jeremy Lamb, and future draft picks.

After last season, when Harden, Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook, the Thunder’s “Big Three,” were widely acknowledged as the best in the NBA, the move was unfathomable for Thunder fans and players.

“Wow,” tweeted both Durant and Eric Maynor.

A Thunder fan tweeted: “Say it ain’t so... 52 million and championships ain’t enough? Literally crying right now.” Then a few minutes later the same friend tweeted directly to Harden: “To tell you how torn up about this trade, I have left my house and had to go back three different times in the last ten minutes.”

Unfortunately, as the mostly new-to-the-NBA Thunder fans are realizing, professional basketball is a business, and deep emotional attachments to players have obvious risks. Another heartbroken OKC fan tweeted “HE BETTER SHAVE HIS BEARD. THAT BEARD BELONGS TO THE

FANS OF OKC.” Despite the public outcry, the move will likely be a profitable long-term move for the Thunder.

OKC will miss Harden’s playmaking ability and his grittiness, but what they got in return from Houston is nothing to laugh at.

Martin averaged 17.1 points per game last season, a higher average than Harden. Lamb helped lead Connecticut to a national title in 2011, and the three draft picks, one of which is coming from Toronto, could be a lottery pick.

Some say it was a selfish move from Harden, as the $55.5 million over four years that the Thunder had offered him was only $4.5 million less than the maximum amount he could have received, but if OKC really wanted him, they should have offered him the $60 million—the guy deserved it.

The most bizarre aspect of the trade was that it came less than a week before the regular season started. Oklahoma City will have little time to get adjusted to the new players. The good news is that the Thunder’s early-season schedule is favorable, with 16 of its first 24 games coming at home.

OKC’s first game, a buzzerbeater loss to San Antonio in which they only scored 84 points, showed that it will take some time before the offense gets clicking.

After being the sixth man in OKC, Harden will get a chance to be “the guy” in Houston. He will be the focal point of the Rockets’ offense, along with Jeremy Lin. It is hard to imagine, however, that he won’t regret the decision to leave OKC as Houston’s losses pile up this season and instead of passing the ball to Westbrook and Durant, he is passing to Lin and Carlos Delfino.

Think you ‘Cane?

Tulsa vs Houston This week, the Hurricane will look to move past its heartbreaking loss to Arkansas as it hits the road to visit conference foe Houston.

The Cougars have been one of Tulsa’s fiercest conference rivals, and the Hurricane will be eager to revenge last year’s beating at the hands of Houston.

Tulsa is currently dominating the conference, and a win against Houston would go a long way to becoming champions of the C-USA West.

Look for a strong fight out of the Cougars, who started the season with high hopes, but are now fighting just to gain bowl eligibility.

Location: Houston, TX Students: 39,800 Mascot: Shasta Record: 4–5 2011 Record: 13-1 Last Week: L to ECU 48–28 Last meeting: 2011 Houston won 48–16 ACT 25th/75th Percentile: 21 / 26

5 november 2012

the Collegian : 3

Who should be president and why?

J. Christopher Proctor Managing Editor

Four years ago the nation was ablaze with visions of coming change and a hope for a better government, a better economy and a better society. Now, with that wave of hope four years behind us, many have criticized President Obama, saying that what we hoped would be a revolutionary presidency has fallen flat, failing to bring the transformation—and recovery—that we longed for when we elected Barack Obama in 2008.

And it is easy to see why so many people feel this way: unemployment remains high and wages low, our national debt and deficit have skyrocket, we remain entangled in Afghanistan and future conflicts in the Middle East seem to loom near. Our immigration system has been largely ignored and our education system is in shambles.

And all the while our federal government seems incapable of running itself, threatening to shut down on a seemingly constant basis.

If the people of the United States faced a simple choice of whether they were satisfied with the current state of affairs and the rate of progress it would be very understandable that the Obama administration would not receive high marks.

But this is not the choice we face during this election. We must choose between two men, two parties and ultimately two visions for America.

There are three key areas that this election can be broken down to: social policies, foreign affairs and the economy.

There are real differences between the candidates in regard to social issues, and if you support Mitt Romney and the Republicans primarily based on social issues I understand your decision and respectfully disagree.

If you support either candidate based primarily on foreign affairs you are in a small faction and likely missed the foreign policy debate. The two men agree on just about all of the major questions facing us abroad and their differences are surprisingly minimal— painfully so for those like the libertarians who hold significantly different views.

But, in the all too relevant words of Bill Clinton if you are looking for the deciding factor in this election, “it’s the economy, stupid”.

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney offer us two very different visions of the Ameri-

can economy; two visions that have already been tested in American history.

Mitt Romney and the Republicans want an economy resembling that built by Reagan in the early 1980s, with low tax rates, low government regulation, and lower spending on governmental social services.

Barack Obama and the Democrats want an economy that more resembles the system constructed in the wake of World War II, where government took an active role in providing both opportunities and results for its citizens.

There are clear results of these two approaches.

Between 1945 and the late 1970s, the United States grew at a steady rate and saw none of the major financial collapses like those of 1929 and 2008. Median incomes increased and poverty receded. We built the interstate highways and passed the GI Bill. America became a rich nation, with a robust middle class in which the fates of all Americans rose and fell together.

This system started to change in the late 1970s, and was dismantled during the Reagan years. The top tax rate fell from over 90 percent in the 1960s to just 33 percent in 1988.

These tax changes were accompanied by cuts to social programs and the rolling back of many regulations and had real— and dramatic—effects on our nation’s economy.

Inequality skyrocketed, median incomes stagnated, social mobility declined and the economy was plagued by financial crises, with crashes in the late 1980s and early 2000s foreshadowing the major collapse of 2008.

No, things were by no means perfect in the 1950s and 1960s, but the American economy was fairer, more efficient and less volatile during this period.

In his four years as president Obama has not performed the miraculous transformation of the American economy that many supporters were hoping for. But he is trying, and it will take more than four years to replace a system—and a paradigm—that has been in place for over three decades.

We have a choice this election. Mitt Romney wants to continue the conservative policies of small government that have destabilized our economy and shrunk our middle class over the last 30 years. Barack Obama wants to move in a different direction—a direction in which the economy works for the entire nation and each individual gets a fair opportunity for success.

This is not the time to return to the failed economic policies of the past. It is time we move on as a country. It is time to move forward.

Obama

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Kalen Petersen

Editor-in-Chief

President Barack Obama was elevated to the highest office in the land on the wings of lofty promises of unity and progress and ebullient hopes of peace and prosperity.

One need not compare his lofty rhetoric in 2008 to his grim realism in 2012 to see that Obama’s presidency has been one of the most severe disappointments in history—it is sufficient to “do the arithmetic,” to borrow one of Obama’s own catchphrases.

Days after his inauguration, Obama spoke on the economy: “if I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” Three years later, unemployment continues to hover around a miserable eight percent, and American businesses are struggling to stay open, saddled with exorbitant corporate tax rates and reams of regulations.

“Today I’m pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office,” Obama said in February 2009, at what the White House had dubbed the “Fiscal Responsibility Conference.”

That title sounds like a bad joke today, after four years of record-shattering deficits and mounting national debt. A one-term proposition is in order.

Barack Obama has been given four years, including two with a majority Democratic Congress, to make his case for a second term.

He has succeeded only in proving beyond a doubt that the United States desperately needs new leadership. America stands to gain enormously by replacing Obama’s ineffectual policies with the vision offered by Mitt Romney.

Romney will bring intelligent, even-handed leadership to the White House. Wherever he has applied his mind, Romney has met with success: he proved himself a dynamic business leader in his time at Bain Capital, famously revived the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and was elected to the governorship of a solidly Democratic Massachusetts, where he eliminated a multi-billion-dollar state deficit.

These are achievements to be admired and emulated, not belittled. Now the voters of America have a chance to put this bril-

liant man in the White House.

While I tend to agree with Romney on social issues, such as gay marriage and abortion, I realize that it is unlikely that persuading someone to change their vote based on such issues is such likely, so I will focus on economic and fiscal questions.

Unfortunately, the Obama campaign, with the aid of an often-compliant media, has managed to twist the narrative, to paint a distorted picture of Romney. The first misconception about Romney is that his proposed tax cuts would help out only the very rich. In actuality, Romney would extend tax cuts for Americans of all income levels.

Moreover, he would eliminate taxes on capital gains and investments—but only for those making $200,000 a year or less. This is, by definition, a progressive tax, defying the caricature of Romney as a hardline trickle-down economist.

He would also cut America’s corporate taxes—which are among the harshest in the developed world. Romney’s plans would liberate U.S. family businesses from the burden of having to feed the three-headed monster of corporate, investment and income taxes.

Another line of attack used by the Obama campaign is that Romney wants to “gut Medicare”—hence attack ads showing Paul Ryan pushing old ladies off cliffs. In reality, Romney would leave Medicare unaltered for current seniors, thus fulfilling our society’s promise to them. For the next generation, Medicare would become a fixedamount benefit, allowing seniors to spend their check on a plan of their choosing.

Currently, entitlement spending accounts for by far the biggest portion of the federal budget—Romney and Ryan should be lauded for having the courage not to settle for the status quo.

If nothing is done, entitlement spending alone, including the $1.7 trillion cost of Obamacare, will reach 20 percent GDP by 2050—that is, it will approximately equal the sum total of all government revenue. All other spending, including military and other social programs, would be paid for on borrowed money.

Obama’s campaign slogan, “Forward,” strikes me as a perfect moniker for Mitt Romney’s measured, thoughtful plans for the country—to rein in the unprecedented growth of the federal government and avoid the shoals of European-style socialism, to provide a climate that will help businesses grow and to bring America into a new era of prosperity—forward.

Romney

From Q & A on cover

Q: What is your position on climate change? Will this affect your decisions as a member of Congress?

Bridenstine: Historical evidence and human observation demonstrates that the world’s climate is constantly changing. The climate system is very complex.

Current models are inadequate to predict future climatic conditions. Although climate arguments have been used in attempts to influence political decisions, there is insufficient evidence of adverse climate change associated with human activity to justify spending large amounts of money to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Olson: Climate change is real and that human beings have contributed to an impact on climate change.

I don’t think that you can find a peerreviewed, scholarly article anywhere on the planet that would run counter to that.

(Climate change) is one of the reasons why I support the NATGAS Act as strongly as I do, because natural gas is—although it’s got its issues—much better than carbon based fuels that we’ve been using.

Q: How has the Tea Party has affected American politics?

Bridenstine: The Tea Party emerged in reaction to the federal government becoming ever larger, more fiscally irresponsible and more intrusive.

In many respects the Tea Party movement is not unlike the American political movement that arose as a consequence of the English government’s failure to hear, understand and respond to the concerns of the American colonists.

The Tea Party has elevated awareness that the federal government has become much more powerful and pervasive than the Founders intended and represents a new expression of the conservative political movement that has always been part of the American political landscape.

Olson: I think the Tea Party started out as a reaction to the debt and the deficit and a reaction to banks run amok and all the bailouts.

I agree with the initial premise of what they were upset about, but I have a strong, strong disagreement with how they’re going about their frustration. The debt ceiling provides us an example of that.

I think that they really have hijacked the Republican party and turned it into something much more radical and much more dangerous and bad for the country.

Full disclosure: J. Christopher Proctor volunteers for the John Olson campaign.

NEWS

5 november 2012

the Collegian : 4

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Guy Fawkes day marks the failure of a treasonous plot— not necessarily a victory for democracy.

Beate Hall Student Writer

In Britain, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated on Nov. 5. Guy Fawkes is burned in effigy each year in remembrance of his failed attempt to kill the king and every member of parliament and install a Catholic monarch by destroying the House of Lords with large piles of gunpowder.

Strangely, in the U.S., Guy Fawkes has become a poster boy

for fighting authority, oppression and tyranny and for populist government.

Fawkes was just one of at least 13 conspirators who were willing to go to extreme lengths to remove the Protestant king, James I, from the throne and replace him with the Catholic Princess Elizabeth.

Fawkes was the only conspirator captured on Nov. 5. The others were all hunted down in the days that followed and most were killed on sight.

Before his public death, Fawkes was tortured severely for more information about his co-conspirators. He did not sell them out right away, but the men with whom he worked and plotted were all

tracked down and killed.

Fawkes was recruited by Robert Catesby sometime in 1604 to help with the plot. After failing in their attempts to tunnel beneath the House of Lords, the group purchased the lease to an undercroft which, conveniently, lay immediately below the chamber.

Fawkes was responsible for guarding the gunpowder hidden beneath the House of Lords. Despite the group’s preparation, a letter sent to warn a Catholic member of the House of Lords was used to warn the king as well.

Since 1605 there have been bonfires celebrating the survival of the king and the failure of what has come to be known as the

Gunpowder Treason.

In Britain, Fawkes is not commonly considered a hero. His actions against the king resulted in his being hanged, drawn and quartered, a most severe and public death. Historians claim that he leapt from the scaffolding from which he was to be hung and broke his neck, thus avoiding the pain and torture that were soon to come.

In the United States, largely thanks to the graphic novel “V for Vendetta” and its counterpart film from 2006, Fawkes has come to stand for anyone who fights the oppression and tyranny of a government, though Fawkes himself was himself fighting to install a

monarchy. While many associate him with attempting to destroy a corrupt government, thinking him a sort of anti-hero through violence, he was only a minor figure in a greater plot, though a now culturally significant one.

Fawkes is also involved in a strange turn of linguistic history.

In the centuries following the treason, it became a common practice for children to build effigies of Fawkes, called “guys,” which they would hang outside their doors in an effort to collect money to buy fireworks. The word “guy” came to mean “an oddly dressed person” and eventually acquired its current meaning.

City plan hotly contested City of Tulsa ballot measure Vision 2 is slated to provide funding for numerous improvements but remains contentious.

Oscar Ho Staff Writer

In 2003, Tulsa County voters approved Vision 2025, a fourpoint spending plan to boost the regional economy and fund several infrastructure and beautification projects. Now, voters may choose to extend Vision 2025, along with spending on city improvements.

Vision 2025 funded, among other things, the BOK Center, the redecoration of downtown Tulsa, repair of Tulsa’s streets, the Broken Arrow Community Center at Neinhuis Park, and an incentive plan for American Airlines, Inc. Proponents of the bill said that Vision 2025 would bring jobs to Tulsa, fix several problems in infrastructure, and improve the overall quality of life. Opponents called the original legislation an unnecessary “penny tax,” after the revenue source for the nearly $900 million proposal.

After a long row over specific earmarks, alternative strategies, and the like, Vision 2025 passed, but one point turned out to be unenforceable. As a result, 40 percent of the tax was dropped, and Tulsa tax saw a 6/10 of a penny tax

increase instead.

Vision 2 is an extension of the 6/10 of a penny tax. It is scheduled to take effect in 2017, when the tax expires. Vision 2 is a two-point plan, but has the same goals as its predecessor. Focusing on making Tulsa into a more livable city, it spends heavily on education, the arts, downtown Tulsa and Tulsa International Airport. Here are some of the details: In an effort to raise $748.8 million, Tulsa County will keep the 6/10 penny tax.

Proposition 1 will afford $387 million for economic growth, most of which go to improvements at Tulsa’s airport and support/maintenance facilities.

Proposition 2 provides $362 million for quality-of-life improvements.

Cities in Tulsa County will receive funding from Proposition 2: The City of Tulsa: $158 million for dam improvements on the Arkansas River, improvements to the Tulsa Zoo, renovation of the Central Library, funding education such as the Tulsa School of Community Medicine and various other projects.

The City of Broken Arrow: $44 million for a massive road construction operation, police services and fire services.

The City of Jenks: $9.2 million for the Oklahoma Aquarium, improvements to the Arkansas River and various other projects.

Tragedy shakes TU campus

On Tuesday afternoon, University of Tulsa students found a tragic message in their inboxes.

It was a letter from Sharp Chapel chaplain Rev. Jeffrey Francis, informing the campus “with great sadness and deepest sympathy” of the passing of freshman John Baluh.

Baluh, a 21-year-old business major, was fatally injured Monday night when he was struck by a car while riding his bicycle. Tulsa Police Sergeant Ryan Woods said Baluh was hit from behind while cycling in the 700 block of W. 71st St. KRMG, a local talk radio station, reported that Baluh was struck by multiple cars, and that police had not found the driver of the first vehicle to hit Baluh.

According to the Tulsa World, police interviewed and then released the driver of another vehicle.

Baluh, a native of Talequah, Okla., worked as a sous chef at Musclemaker Grill Restaurant in Tulsa Hills, where he would entertain patrons with his culinary skills, KRMG reported.

“He would take and flip a flame from one pan to another and the kids would cheer and applaud for him,” owner Don Potvin said. Baluh had plans to use his TU business major to open his own restaurant one day.

Baluh’s obituary described him as “extremely well rounded and diversely talented,” noting that he was a Tae Kwan Do black belt, an aspiring artist, excellent dancer and an actor, having

Photo courtesy Dignity Memorial

played Shakespeare’s Macbeth onstage in high school.

The obituary also noted that he enjoyed the outdoors, and enjoyed time with his grandfather, Louis Timp, who was a “major force in his life.”

Potvin described Baluh as generous-spirited. “He really tried to make a positive impact on other people. He really wanted other people to succeed, he wanted other people to do well, and I just want John to be remembered for that,” he said.

Baluh is survived by his mother, Hope, his father, David, and his siblings Graham, Agatha, Elisabeth, Rachel, Juliana, and Claude. Rachel Baluh is a TU sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.

His wake was held Thursday at Reed Culver Funeral Home in Talequah, and his funeral mass was Friday at St. Brigid Catholic Church, also in Talequah.

The City of Sand Springs: $10 million for infrastructure in public parks, schools, the Gilcrease Expressway extension and various other projects.

Bixby, Owasso, Collinsville, Glenpool, Sperry and Skiatook will also receive Vision 2 funds Proponents of Vision 2 intend to use it to keep jobs in Tulsa and attract new jobs too. By overhauling the support/maintenance facilities at Tulsa International Airport,

supporters hope to keep American Airlines jobs in Tulsa. The Mayor of Tulsa and several City Councilors support the legislation, as do the Tulsa County Commissioners, who put it on the ballot.

But opposition is stiff. The results of a survey, which were published Sunday by the Tulsa World, found that Vision 2 has support, but barely enough to pass. “An Oklahoma Poll of 440 likely voters, conducted Oct. 25 to Nov. 1,

indicates Proposition 2 will pass with 58 percent support, compared with 31 percent against and 11 percent undecided. Proposition 1 has 45 percent support, with 38 percent against and 17 percent undecided. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.67 percentage points,” said the Tulsa World.

The high number of undecided voters could swing for or against Vision 2.

Women’s soccer plays in C-USA championship

Aaron Montes / Collegian

The Golden Hurricane women’s soccer team, ranked fifth in the C-USA at the beginning of the season, lost the conference championship to the No. 3-ranked University of Central Florida, the second-biggest university in the nation, with a score of 2–0.

Under the microscope: Kimberly Poff Student Writer Biology California, USA In a study by Virender Rehan of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute published in this week’s BioMed Central Medicine, the effect of nicotine on second generation offspring of lab rats was examined.

Pregnant lab rats were injected with nicotine, and were then allowed to rear their pups to three weeks. Some of the first-generation offspring were examined while the remainder of the offspring were allowed to continue to grow and mate.

As expected, the mother lab rats who were injected with the nicotine, and their first generation offspring, who were in utero when the nicotine was injected, displayed asthmatic lungs. More interesting, the children of those offspring, who had never been exposed to nicotine, also displayed asthmatic characteristics.

The second-generation asthmatics indicate that nicotine may semi-permanently suppress the genes that regulate lung formation.

No actual changes in the DNA sequences of the lab rats are occurring, and thus it is possible that effect may be treatable. The inheritance of acquired traits, hearkening back to Lamarckian evolution, is an effect of epigenetics, which is concerned with alterations in the expression of genes.

Medicine Cambridge, England Every year 14,000 people in the U.S. die from the hospital-transmitted bowel bacterial species C.

difficle. This bacterium runs rampant in patients taking oral antibiotics which, as a side effect, kill helpful bowel microbes.

One successful way to treat this infection is through fecal transplants, which use healthy bowel bacteria to kill off the invading species. Trevor Lawley and his colleagues at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge have developed a slightly less revolting procedure.

They have cultured some of the hundreds of bacteria found in healthy feces and successfully found a combination of six—three previously unknown to science— which not only suppress C. difficle but also stimulate the growth of other, normal gut bacteria.

Technology Edinburgh, Scotland The scientists at Google’s secretive X Lab have created a neural network of 16,000 computer pro-

cessors with more than one billion connections and allowed it to roam the Internet. The goal is to use images and videos from the web to learn to recognize various shapes and objects without human assistance.

Given humanity’s apparent interest in inane distractions, the computer followed suit and learned to recognize cats. This is largely fallout from the sheer volume of cat images on the Internet.

The network was never told what a cat, or any of the other 20,000 objects it is able to identify, specifically was—which is how face recognition software works.

Instead, it scoured the internet and invented the concept of a cat for itself and can produce a digital image of “cat” which is rather fuzzy but undeniably cat-like.

The research, which was presented in Edinburgh, Scotland, represents huge advances in artificial intelligence. The upshot is that the computer’s learning environment consists largely of YouTube, which is no place for a child.

In the Oct. 22 issue of the Collegian, the first sentence of the article “TU parking policy receives mixed reviews” should have read “A recent student interest survey performed by the University of Tulsa’s Student Association found that, of students who responded to the survey, approximately 70 percent were to some degree unsatisfied with parking, 40 percent were strongly unsatisfied, and 77 percent wanted more freedom to park in multiple lots.”

In the October 22 issue of the Collegian, we reported in the article “Director of Libraries also resident TU historian” that Dr. Guy Logsdon is currently TU’s Director of Libraries. Dr. Logsdon is actually no longer Director of Libraries at TU—he served in this capacity from 1967 to 1982.

NEWS

the Collegian : 5

5 november 2012

Third-party presidential candidates Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 6, and in the interest of education and awareness, The Collegian brings you the following summary of this election cycle’s third-party presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

Candidates are listed according to the party whose nomination they received. Summaries of their positions on major issues follow.

Libertarian Party President: Gary Johnson Vice-President: James “Jim” Gray Personal Relationships: Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government’s treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration or military service laws.

Government does not have the authority to define, license or restrict personal relationships. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships.

Education: Recognizing that the education of children is a parental responsibility, we would restore authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from government. Parents should have control of and responsibility for all funds expended for their children’s education Social Security: Retirement planning is the responsibility of the individual, not the government. Libertarians would phase out the current government-sponsored Social Security system and transition to a private voluntary system.

Justice Party (Not on Oklahoma ballot) President: Ross “Rocky” Anderson Vice-President: Luis J. Rodriguez

Green Party (Not on Oklahoma ballot) President: Jill Stein Vice-President: Cheri Honkala

Taxes: Since the wealthy are more capable of investing more in the country that has afforded them extraordinary opportunities, higher tax rates on people earning more money is fair and moral.

Jobs: Enact the Full Employment Program which will directly provide 25 million green jobs in sustainable energy, mass transit, sustainable organic agriculture and clean manufacturing, as well as social work, teaching, and other service jobs.

Industrial Hemp: It is time to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp in the U.S. There is a huge market for textiles, paper, high protein food, clean-burning diesel fuel and biodegradable plastics that industrial hemp farmers could produce using less water than cotton, needing no pesticides or herbicides for growing this ‘green’ alternative product.

Utilities: Ensure the right to accessible and affordable utilities—heat, electricity, phone, internet, and public transportation—through democratically run, publicly owned utilities that operate at cost, not for profit

Campaign Finances: A constitutional amendment to overrule Citizens United and to allow limits or prohibitions on the corrosive impact of money in our electoral system is justified and desirable.

Banking Reform: Democratize monetary policy to bring about public control of the money supply and credit creation. This means nationalizing the private bank-dominated Federal Reserve Banks and placing them under a Federal Monetary Authority within the Treasury Department.

Party for Socialism and Liberation (Not on OK ballot) President: Peta Lindsay (ineligible to hold office) Vice-President: Yari Osorio (ineligible to hold office)

Constitution Party President: Virgil H. Goode, Jr. Vice-President: James N. Clymer

Jobs: Having a job should be a Constitutional right.

Immigration: Illegal immigration must stop.

Foreign Policy: Shut down all U.S. military bases around the world—bring all the troops, planes and ships home.

The Constitution: Emphasizing and following the Constitution will mean a smaller less costly government, which is vital for the future prosperity and progress of the U.S.

Banking Reform: The banks’ vast wealth came from the people’s labor and tax-dollar bailout. Capitalist banking is a form of organized crime, rewarding greed and fraud with obscene bonuses. These billionaires looted and destroyed the economy. It is time to seize their assets and use those resources in the interests of the vast majority.

Power must be taken out of the hands of the super-rich, and the Wall Street criminals must be held accountable.

Eye on the world:

Energy Policy: Hydrogen, biodiesel, and other alternative energy sources have potential in making us less dependent on foreign fossil fuels. (Goode) also supports the utilization of nuclear power and expanded drilling opportunities for natural gas and oil in this country so that our energy needs are met by domestic and not foreign sources.

100 cases from the previous year.

Acid attacks are a criminal offense in Pakistan, and the parents could face a life sentence in prison..

Caribbean Haiti

Magdalena Sudibjo Student Writer Asia China The plan to expand an oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Ningbo, China has sparked a massive, week-long demonstration consisting of thousands of local residents. Though authorities have finally declared they will halt the plans for a new plant, some locals fear a revival of the project and continue to protest in the streets.

Residents have health and environmental concerns about the new chemical plants. They criticize the government for not disclosing to the public what the risks involved

Oct. 25 5:39 p.m.

Officers were called for a motor vehicle accident in the USW parking lot. Security completed a report and facilitated the exchange of information.

will be.

“I think the government is lying to us,” an unnamed protestor told Al-Jazeera. “It is trying to deceive the common people just for the sake of getting their money.

To take advantage of the common people, our lives are being threatened.”

So far the demonstration has been relatively peaceful, though the police have arrested some participants. With the handover of political power to a new generation of leaders quickly approaching, Chinese authorities are eager to show an image of harmony.

Pakistan Police have arrested a couple for killing their 15-year-old daughter

Officers conducted a party shutdown in USS. This was the second call on this apartment.

As officers arrived an intoxicated student refused to let officers approach the apartment door.

This student was placed under arrest for public drunkenness. The student activity resisted arrest and was placed in cuffs and transported by TPD to jail.

Officers then conducted a party shutdown without any further problems.

5:39 p.m.

Oct. 26 6:30 a.m.

Officers were called to an vehicle accident at Siegfried Plaza at Chapman Center. There were no injuries.

6:30 a.m.

Officers were called to Brown Village in reference to a loud noise complaint. Officers attempted to make contact with the two residents.

There was no answer. Officers entered the apartment with the PSM and there was no one inside.

Officers turned off the television

by dousing her with acid, which the parents say was done “in the name of honor.”

Police say that the incident occurred after the father saw his daughter eyeing a person on a motorcycle with whom he thought his daughter was having an illicit affair.

“He took his daughter inside, beat her up and then poured acid over her with the help of his wife,” local police officer Raja Tahir Ayub said.

Victims of honor killings, mostly women, are believed to have brought shame and dishonor to a usually male-dominated family or community. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 943 women fell victim in 2011, an increase of more than and secured the apartment.

5:40 p.m.

Officers were called to Collins Fitness Center for a missing cell phone. Security will review the video and see if we can identify any suspect(s).

Oct. 27 12:30 a.m.

Members of Kappa Sigma fraternity advised security that someone was turning off the main circuit breakers to the house.

Officers located a witness who stated they observed a male student flip the breakers and run into another fraternity house.

Officers will contact the president of the house and see if they will address the issue.

2:10 p.m.

Hurricane Sandy has devastated the Caribbean nation of Haiti even after the worst of the storm has passed. Flooding and landslides have killed at least 52 people, the highest reported deaths of any country hit by Sandy so far.

The hurricane’s toll was both human and economic. “The economy took a huge hit,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said.

Sandy destroyed most of the crops that survived Hurricane Isaac in August. Rising food prices had already plagued Haitians, but now the country is expecting a massive famine.

Unsanitary conditions have also threatened an outbreak of cholera and other diseases.

Haitian authorities reported that 18,000 families were left homeless after the storm, adding to already 370,000 dispossessed after the 2010 earthquake.

Europe European Union The European Commission has allowed Glybera, a genetic disease treatment, to be commercially marketed throughout the EU. The gene therapy, developed

by UniQure, is mainly targeted

Officers were dispatched to Lottie Jane for a fire alarm on the second floor. There was no sign of fire or smoke. The area was cleared and all security units and TFD cleared the area.

9:30 p.m.

Officers were called to Brown Village for a hit and run accident.

Students observed a large blue Ford Truck had backed up into a student vehicle. A report was completed. Officers will attempt to ID the suspect.

Oct. 29 11:15 a.m.

Officers were called to the security office for a larceny of bicycle report. There are no suspects at this time. The bicycle was taken between October 26 and October 29.

toward people who have a rare disease that makes them unable to normally digest fats. Test trial results, however, have caused some concerns. Some participants of the treatment have developed leukemia, and there has been at least one death so far.

UniQure chief executive officer Jorn Aldag remains optimistic.

“The final approval of Glybera from the European Commission marks a major step forward in making gene therapies available for a large number of rare diseases with a very high unmet medical need,” Aldag said.

The company announced that it would soon apply for regulatory approval in Canada and the U.S. South American Columbia A suitcase bomb exploded near a town square where 5,000 children were celebrating Halloween in the Columbian town of Pradera. The blast killed the two bombers and injured 37 others, including two young boys who remain in critical condition.

Police suspect the perpetrators to be members of a local drug trafficking gang linked with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Authorities believe that the bomb’s true target had been the police station a block away from the actual blast site.

“It was chaos, horrible,” said Alba Nelly, a housewife who was in the town square when the bomb exploded. Out of the casualties reported, 14 were children.

Oct. 30 5:15 p.m.

Officers were called to the DeltaDelta-Delta house for a fire alarm.

Officers did not find any signs of fire. They were advised that a member had burned some popcorn and it set off the alarm 8:06 p.m.

Officers on patrol observed a vehicle driving recklessly. The vehicle was stopped and both occupants were non-students.

TPD was contacted after both subjects stated they were smoking marijuana and had no DL. Both subjects were banned from campus and turned over to TPD. The Collegian does not produce or edit the Campus Crime Watch except for content and brevity.

variety

5 November 2012

the Collegian : 6

Montgomery’s influential guitar playing impacts jazz genre Studio 54: A weekly review of all things retro.

Elliot Bauman Student Writer

There are a handful of names often thrown around when great guitarists are discussed: Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page are just a few musicians generally considered masters of the guitar. That said, there are a number of excellent players that are less widely known, who do not get the credit they deserve.

One such individual is the fabulous jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Though Montgomery is not a household name, he is one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

Photo courtesy Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery’s unique way of plucking the guitar strings produced a very different sound from other guitarists of the day. This enabled him to develop his own, individual sound that can be appreciated while listening to each of his tunes.

John Leslie “Wes” Montgomery was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1923. Montgomery was fortunate in the sense that he was born in a very musically-motivated family; both of his brothers were also musicians, playing bass and piano, respectively. Later in his life, Montgomery would eventually collaborate with his brothers on a series of albums.

Although he was born into a

musical family, Montgomery was apparently a poor sight reader— meaning he could not read music well—and he did not start playing guitar until relatively late, at the age of 20. Once Montgomery finally did pick up the guitar, his natural talent became abundantly clear.

Beginning in 1948, Montgomery began to tour with the orchestra of Lionel Hampton, a

prominent jazz bandleader and composer of the day. While his time with the Hampton orchestra certainly honed his skill as a guitarist, it was brief. Montgomery left the Hampton orchestra in 1950, and returned home to launch a career of his own.

Upon returning home, Montgomery teamed up with his brothers, and the three released a number of albums as the Montgomery Brothers. Some notable songs by the trio include “Just for Now,” “Doujie” and “Bock to Bock (Back to Back).”

Following his success with the Montgomery Brothers, Montgomery signed with Riverside Records in 1959, and in 1960 he released what is arguably his greatest album, “The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery.”

In addition to Montgomery’s excellent guitar playing, the album also features Tommy Flanagan on piano, and the Heath brothers on drums and bass.

Not surprisingly, “The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery” also features a number of Montgomery’s greatest tunes.

Song such as “West Coast Blues,” “Four on Six” and “D-Natural Blues” truly showcase Montgom-

ery’s masterful guitar technique and style.

Montgomery continued to play with his own band for the remainder of his career, despite offers to work with other big-name jazz musicians, such as John Coltrane.

Montgomery tragically died of a heart attack in 1968; he was 45 at the time.

Montgomery’s guitar playing was excellent as a whole, but it was his trademark techniques that truly contributed to his legacy.

One such technique was his use of octaves: playing the same note on two different strings exactly one octave apart.

Montgomery also had a unique way of plucking the guitar strings.

Instead of using a pick or fingerpicking, Montgomery would simply use up-and-down strokes with his thumb. This produced a very different sound than other guitarists of the day, and created a individual sound for Montgomery.

To this day, Montgomery remains one the most influential and greatest jazz guitarists. While he may not be as widely popular as his rock, blues and country counterparts, Montgomery is a guitarist to be respected, studied and of course, listened to.

Moving “Perks” fascinates viewers

The film adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel of the same name does justice to the original work.

By Helen Patterson

The Best Ways to Never Buy Food Again

Zachary Patterson Student Writer

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” has more mature themes than the average flick about a troubled teenager struggling to fit in to high school. The film deals with drugs, sexual abuse and introversion, primarily through the unfolding of the life of high-school freshman Charlie.

A dark undertone lingers throughout the film, as the audience is not sure what is wrong with Charlie, played by Logan Lerman, until a jarring ending. Constant references to Charlie’s former “problems” only heighten the uncertainty.

As a freshman whose best friend recently killed himself, friendless Charlie has trouble adjusting to high-school life until he meets seniors Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller) who introduce him to the norms of high school society.

Although few films that are based on novels even approach the quality of the original—due to glaring omissions or misinterpretation—this film is much different, as writer Steven Chbosky, author of “The Perks of Being a

1. Some campus jobs include free food, courtesy of Sodexo. Plan your shifts right and get free dinner!

Photo courtesy Summit Entertainment

Sam, played by Emma Watson, befriends troubled freshman Charlie, portrayed by Logan Lerman, and introduces him to the norms of high school society.

Wallflower,” directed the film adaptation.

The cast delivers quite successfully. Most are familiar with the differing characters from high-school; Lerman plays the introverted yet perceptive Charlie painfully well; his lingering melancholy leaves the audience aching. Miller is the friendly and showy Patrick, and his quirky portrayal of Charlie’s gay friend stole every scene he was in.

Emma Watson’s lovable yet attention-needy depiction of Sam made me forget she was Hermione Granger, though her American accent still needs work. Other cast members were up to par as well, including Paul Rudd, Dylan McDermott, Kate Walsh and Nina Dobrev.

Moreover, the soundtrack—fea-

turing The Smiths, New Order, David Bowie and Sonic Youth, among others—took the spirit of the novel and the film and brought them to life. The Smiths’ gutwrenching “Asleep” is Charlie’s favorite tune.

The cinematography was excellent. The shots overlooking Pittsburgh were breathtaking and the scenes of Charlie, Sam and Patrick driving through the highway tunnel, being “infinite,” were just as well-imagined.

The film was moving in a variety of ways, but does not quite live up to the profound brilliance of the novel. The novel is a series of letters from Charlie to the reader, so the task of converting the story to a film was always going to be a challenge, but Chbosky does his own story justice.

from the Office of Public Affairs and Ecenomic Development

It’s a beautiful day in the

True Blue Neighborhood!

Feeding Oklahoma Food Drive Help us make a difference. Food Drive benefiting the Oklahoma Community Food Bank is currently going on.

Blue tubs are placed in: Holmes Student Center, John Rogers Hall, McFarlin Library, Helmerich Hall, Chapman Hall, McClure Hall, Collins Hall, Oliphant Hall, Stephenson Hall, and the University School Salvation Army Angel Tree Nov. 15 – Dec 22, various shifts available Contact Kathy Shelton in the True Blue Neighbor Volunteer Center at kathy-shelton@utulsa.edu for information on other volunteer opportunities.

2. Join all of the religious organizations. Most of them offer at least one free meal a week.

3. Become a contortionist. “Liberate” candy bars from vending machines.

4. Try your hand at dumpster diving. It’s not just for broken appliances and half-used shampoo bottles!

5. Kidnap a Presidential Scholar and keep him or her in your closet.

Only let your Presidential Scholar out for food runs.

6. Participate in all cam-

pus events. At least, all the events that have food, which is most of them.

7. Join as many organizations as possible.

Better yet, start your own organizations. Hold events with food (thank you, SA!).

8. Hang out with people who frequently get pizza and take-out. Mooch shamelessly.

9. Beg your parents for food packages and/or money.

10. And remember: If you are in utter despair over the cost of food, you can become a robot. There’s a sign-up sheet somewhere…

Variety

the Collegian : 7

5 November 2012

“Before I Go to Sleep” an exciting read

S. J. Watson’s psychological thriller “Before I Go to Sleep” is a profound and page-turning read.

Photo courtesy Ubisoft

Ubisoft’s latest installment in the “Assassin’s Creed” franchise takes the player back in time to colonial America, and features an American Indian protagonist, Connor (left). As the story continues, the player interacts with notable historical figures such as George Washington (right), and learns “how history really happened.”

“Assassin’s Creed III” reforms history

Tired of the election season?

Take a break from the polls, play “AC III” and interact with the founding fathers of our great nation.

Andres Gomez Student Writer

The “Assassin’s Creed” franchise has—for many years—been a popular and well-received game series that will certainly go down in the annals of video game history.

Ubisoft’s latest installment, “Assassin’s Creed III,” is a worthy addition to this successful franchise. A beautiful show of gameplay, graphics and storyline makes it one of the most powerful games in years.

“AC III” adds to the legendary and controversial storyline of the “Assassin’s Creed” franchise, which continues to impress with each new game. This time around, the story takes place in colonial America, and features an American Indian protagonist named Connor. The intricacy of the storyline and attention to historic accuracy are astounding.

The game does a wonderful job

Anna Bennett Student Writer

It is early November, and Ireland is still green—in more ways than one might think. Despite being very old-fashioned in some regards, Irish society as a whole is very progressive in its attitude towards the earth and the preservation of resources.

This week is is Chi Omegas HootieFest with a dinner on Monday the 5th ChiO sing is on the 8th at 8 p.m.

Alpha Kappa Alpha is having an Election Watch Party in the SAC on the 6th

of describing notable historical events, as the player learns “how it really happened.” As I play more, I look forward to delving into the game and uncovering further details that contribute to the overall story.

The graphics were the first noteworthy thing about the new game, namely because they were very cinematic in their approach.

The visuals go above and beyond highly detailed character models: rather, the game details shadows, outlines and enhancements that all contribute to its immersive overall feel. Furthermore, the game has received numerous graphical upgrades, including a lush landscape and many subtle additions that make it as realistic as possible.

Among the most frustrating features of previous “Assassin’s Creed” games were the numerous gameplay options that resulted in awkward character movements, sometimes against the player’s desire. However, in “Assassin’s Creed III,” the controls are simplified, while the sensitivity is upgraded to the point where the character responds very realistically.

However, some features of gameplay were difficult to grasp at first. The franchise has been building up a fighting strategy with a series of common inputs that hold true for each game. This time around, however, the developers changed the controls and made the fight sequences—especially coun-

There are plenty of “green” initiatives in the States—and at the University of Tulsa specifically— but these efforts pale in comparison to those over here—in part, because people have always lived “green” here.

In some ways, this country skipped the 20th century, transitioning very rapidly from agriculturally focused occupied territory to modern, efficient and technologically advanced society.

The air in Dublin is unbelievably clear because the city was never industrialized by the “modernity” of 20th century consumerism. It was not until the Celtic Tiger—the enormous economic boom of the 1980s–90s—that the Irish experienced the level of material wealth and access that is taken for granted in the States.

Now that the recession is hitting Ireland hard, it seems that people have adjusted to a life of less. It is highly frowned upon, especially by the older generations, to use your clothes dryer on a regular basis. This is a wasteful convenience reserved only for the very dead of winter.

And most “dryers”

ter kills—much different.

For a longtime “Assassin’s Creed” player like myself, it was a difficult transition to this new input pattern, yet once I adjusted, I found it smoother than the old one—but more challenging to master.

Despite the game’s positive aspects, there are a few minor faults.

For one, I find that during gameplay, the game feels as though one is watching a movie rather than playing a game. In the early stages of the game, each mission has two, or even three, cut scenes.

The scenes are well done and are very important to the development of the storyline, but they constantly interrupt gameplay and take time to load.

One level in particular took 20 minutes to play through the first time, but when it was replayed— skipping the cut scenes—it only took five minutes to complete.

An additional fault of “Assassin’s Creed III” is that the mission objectives are only displayed when the game is paused and then unpaused, and when key events happen, which is not often enough.

Despite some annoying changes and the abundance of cut scenes, “Assassin’s Creed III” is a welldeveloped game, and well worth the money. “Assassin’s Creed’s” loyal fans and newcomers alike will find the game rewarding, challenging and entertaining.

are combination washer/dryers, meaning your clothes never get that dry anyway, so you might as well save energy by using a drying rack.

As a general rule, things are just on a smaller scale here. And smaller spaces and smaller appliances means less energy used. Meanwhile, in the States, engineers desperately try to devise ways to make products more “efficient” while still maintaining the grandiose scale and luxury to which Americans are accustomed.

Recycling is also a huge deal in Ireland; the system is singlestream in Dublin for convenience, and specific bins for recycling abound. The labels of packages will often detail what part of the product can or can’t be recycled.

Ironically, though, there is quite a litter problem in the city, which some attribute to the centuries old mindset of being an occupied country: “The British own this place, why should I care if it’s dirty?”

Still, Ireland is very much a state in transition—socially, economically and culturally—and its people seem to be going in a good direction.

Although the city streets are quite drivable (if confusing because they wind constantly and change names often), many people choose to walk or bike to work or school. People can get from one end of the city to the other in less than an hour on foot.

This habit of walking regularly cuts down on not only traffic, but also pollution. I feel so disgusted with myself when I think that I used to drive from Norman to Kep—how selfish and American of me.

The Emerald Isle may have been green before it was cool, but I strongly believe American society could learn a lesson or two about using less (but enjoying things more) from the Irish.

Helen Patterson Staff Writer

In his debut thriller “Before I Go to Sleep,” English writer S. J. Watson tells the compelling story of a woman with a type of amnesia (reminiscent of Lucy in “Fifty First Dates”) that causes her to forget who she is after going to sleep.

Each day, she awakens in a strange house beside a man she does not know with the vague sense that she is a young woman, or sometimes even a girl, with her whole life ahead of her. However, when she looks in the mirror, she finds a middle-aged woman’s face looking back.

The mysterious man, who claims to be her husband, Ben, then tells her that her name is Christine Lucas, and that she is 47.

The novel is told from the journal entries that she secretly writes as advised by a neurologist, Dr. Nash, in an attempt to recover her lost life.

Tension builds beautifully throughout the work. The author skillfully turns the novel into an intensely personal and intimate psychological thriller that is nonetheless deeply resonant with the human experience.

From the ominous sentence she sees on the cover of the journal,

“DON’T TRUST BEN,” onward, the book is a page-turner. The reader shares Christine’s bewilderment about her own identity, and follows her eagerly in her quest to recover who she was.

Creating a protagonist who is so disconnected from any past experience allows Watson to explore the fragility of memory and the human condition, to remark on how defined humans are by the experiences that shape them. At one point, despairing about her inability to remember her life or the traumatic accident that robbed her of it, Christine writes: “What are we if not an accumulation of our memories?”

At another point, she writes: “It’s not life, it’s just existence, jumping from one moment to the next with no idea of the past, and no plan for the future.” Each day forces Christine to confront the exhausting existential questions of identity and humanity that most humans successfully (and wisely) exclude from their day to day lives.

Despite its brilliance and originality, the novel is not perfect.

When the expected villain who destroyed Christine’s life is finally revealed, he acts like a caricature of the insecure, self-centered manipulator. Additional character depth would have made his actions much more chilling.

Moreover, there is also less repetition in phrasing and questions from Christine than would be expected from an amnesiac. Granted, this makes for a better narrative, but it does rob the work of some realism.

Despite these minor caveats, novelist Tess Gerritsen’s description, “Quite simply the best debut I’ve ever read,” is certainly justified.

Photo courtesy Blueprint pictures

Things begin to heat up for Marty (Colin Farrell, left), Hans (Christopher Walken, center) and Billy (Sam Rockwell, right), after Hans mistakenly steals Bonny, a Shih Tzu that belongs to crazy Hollywood gangster, Charlie (played by Woody Harrelson).

“Seven Psychopaths” entertaining thrill ride

Irish director Martin McDonagh’s latest film features an amazing cast, that leaves audience members hysterical.

Eric DiGiacomo Student Writer

“Seven Psychopaths” is more entertaining than any of this year’s superhero blockbusters. This is the second feature-length film by Martin McDonagh, an Irish playwright-director who delivered for audiences with a great debut, “In Bruges.” McDonagh definitely tops that work with this funny, bloody thrill ride.

The film revolves around Marty (Colin Farrell), an Irish screenwriter who is struggling to start— let alone finish—a screenplay entitled “Seven Psychopaths.” His aimless and wacky friend, Billy (Sam Rockwell) is determined to help Marty finish the screenplay by putting out a newspaper ad “calling all psychopaths.”

Billy is a loyal friend who wishes to help Marty out in whatever way he can, while also devoting time to helping out Hans (Christopher Walken), another friend who runs a dog-napping and returning

business. However, conflict ensues when they nab a certain Shih Tzu named Bonny. Bonny, however, is not just any Shih Tzu, but a beloved pet of crazy Hollywood gangster, Charlie (Woody Harrelson), who is willing to kill anyone in order to get his dog back.

The majority of the film’s amusement comes from the cast’s amazing performances. Farrell does a fantastic job as Marty, the drunken main character. Walken gives a strong and thoughtful performance as the caring, eccentric Hans. And finally, Rockwell delivers the best performance of all, as the audience soon finds that Billy is not a simple deadbeat, but someone who becomes more off-kilter and ridiculous than imagined.

The highlights of the film include Walken’s scenes as Hans.

Staying true to his trademark drawl and delivery, Walken brings the entertainment. One scene between Hans and Charlie is so touching that the audience almost forgets that he earns his living by stealing dogs and returning them for reward money. Such scenes prevent film apart from being written off as just another campy—yet deliciously entertaining—Tarantino knockoff, and into one of the most layered films of the year.

Overall, there is a lot to keep track of, with a plot that follows a few too many characters; nevertheless, this action/thriller/dark comedy genre hybrid is definitely worth the money.

opinion

the Collegian : 8

5 November 2012

How does fact-checking influence debates?

Fact-checking during a debate puts more pressure on candidates to be truthful when speaking about tough issues.

Beate Hall

Student Writer

Politicians have long possessed reputations as liars, cheats and thieves. In establishing accurate pictures of candidates, therefore, fact-checking has become more and more important with each election.

Recently, there has been criticism of on-the-spot fact-checking by a debate moderator. This criticism is ridiculous. If people know that a candidate is blatantly lying to them, that knowledge affects their decision-making and credibility of the candidate. This should make fact-checking an important part of every debate.

With the shift into the digital age, information is now available in real time. To that end, it is only logical to fact-check in real time.

People often fail to read up on claims after debates. They trust that if a statement were wrong, someone would raise an objection right then and there. Candy Crowley, moderator of the second presidential debate, did just that.

However, since she only corrected one candidate, it appeared biased.

If fact-checking is done to both candidates, however, then it is unbiased and completely fair. It is not the moderator’s fault if one can-

didate is a lying snake who then looks bad because many of his statements are false.

Opinions cannot be checked against the facts. Concrete claims, numbers provided and voting records can all be checked, but many other things cannot. It is important to remember this, because politicians sometimes present their opinions as facts.

This might make things seem one-sided. If one candidate is sticking to the facts and the other is expressing opinions, the moderator may only be able to factcheck one candidate. However, the moderator’s sources might be just as questionable as the candidates themselves. What constitutes

who should be fact-checking, but the audience. The way we vote is our responsibility. Perhaps researching the candidates and their statements should our responsibility as well. However, the personal responsibility argument leads back to the fact that many people will not fact check because they trust in the moderators and the networks to provide them with all the pertinent facts about candidates and their public statements.

Moderators’ names are permanently attached to each debate.

Since people are trusting them to be fair to all comers to the presidential ring, they should factcheck as many of the statements they can. The verification of politi-

Fact checking by a moderator during debates involves the moderator’s opinions to too significant a degree to maintain neutrality.

a reliable source? What makes a source truly unbiased? How would we know the moderator was actually relying on good sources?

Perhaps it is not the moderator

cal statements is important because if things are taken at face value, we risk electing a bold-faced liar, even though Google could have forewarned us.

Graphic by Cody Green

Obama and Romney the same

Though different on social issues, Obama and Romney are effectively the same in other policy areas.

Will Bramlett Student Writer

Through the last few months, the campaigns of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have been trying to convince the American people that their administrations would lead this country in dramatically different directions over the next four years.

In reality, the politics of both candidates are actually amazingly similar. The campaigns and the media have been driving discussion of the minute differences between in the two plans and blowing those ideas out of proportion.

I will be voting for President Obama because I believe his plan for the next four years would lead this country to a better place than Romney’s would. I do not agree with many of Obama’s policies, but there are a few more of Romney’s policies with which I disagree. Simply, I am voting for what I consider the lesser of two evils.

The Obama and Romney administrations will be similar to many previous presidencies. While some laws and taxes will be changed, just visiting the basement of the McFarlin Library can demonstrate the enormous number of laws and other policies the U.S. government has on file. As with most presidencies, nearly all of these will be left unaffected, so that our government will operate almost identically to how it has these last four years.

Romney has proposed changes to Obama’s health care reform

law, but says he supports most of ObamaCare’s reforms, like the ban on denial of coverage for preexisting conditions. The only noticeable difference I see between his plan and Obama’s is that Romney would allow insurance to be purchased across state lines and remove the mandate to buy health care.

In the 1990’s, The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, proposed a health care mandate as an alternative to the universal health care system proposed by liberals, including President Bill Clinton. In Massachusetts, Romney worked with the heavily Democratic state legislature to pass health care reform with an individual mandate.

Obama, erring on the side of bipartisanship, brought in many of the same people that worked

tary spending by $150 billion per year and still spend more than the next 10 largest military budgets combined.

Both men are still also invested in keeping us involved militarily around the world. Romney has suggested that we should be more involved in Syria, and not be bound to a timeline for withdrawal from Afghanistan. Obama has continued to use morally questionable drone strikes in sovereign nations and has declared any male of combat age as a combatant, to keep the recorded civilian deaths low.

Both men would like to reduce taxes on nearly every American.

The difference between the two policies involves only a small fraction of Americans. Romney would lower taxes on the wealthiest Americans while Obama would require them to pay a little more

“The politics of both candidates are actually amazingly similar” with Romney in Massachusetts to help propose a bill that both parties could pass. Neither liberals nor conservatives would like this bill, as it sat in the middle of the political spectrum. Most conservatives preferred less government interference in the private sector, while many liberals would have preferred a single-payer system.

Both men are also committed to keeping our military as the largest in the world. Obama likes to talk about the new ships Romney would build for the navy, while Romney targets Obama’s proposed cuts in military spending.

While building ships for the navy might look expensive, in comparison to the amount of money our government already spends every year, the cost is small. Obama’s cuts to the military are similarly small compared to total military spending. We could reduce mili-

money. Romney and Obama say they would close tax loopholes.

Romney and Obama also both support investing in new roads and other infrastructure. Both would like to invest more in energy in

Conor Fellin

Student Writer

After the second presidential debate, moderator Candy Crowley was criticized for her in-debate support of President Obama’s assertion that he called the attack in

Benghazi “an act of terror” shortly after it occurred and not 14 days afterwards, which was Romney’s assertion.

My claim is not that Crowley deliberately skewed the debate in favor of Obama. I do not claim that campaigns should not be dictated by fact checkers.

Fact checkers are a necessity

late his or her role as the impartial moderator.

Unlike news sites that can check some claims immediately and flag others for more detailed consideration over the course of the debate, a moderator can neither know the veracity of every falsifiable claim nor correct every incorrect claim.

There are simply too many claims about too wide a variety of issues in too short of a stretch of time.

The moderator must, therefore, make a decision as to which claims to call a candidate out on and which to ignore. However impartial the moderator may attempt to make such a selection, any act of selection will inevitably involve some level of interpretation.

Whenever the moderator must interpret candidates’ statements, personal views have the opportunity to slip in, consciously or unconsciously.

Again, I am not accusing debate moderators of intentionally correcting only the candidate they oppose. Rather, moderators cannot perform a task that involves such active interaction with the claims in the debate and cannot be performed with absolute neutrality by nature of their humanity.

Yes, such a bias will invariably affect news sites and channels that perform fact checks as much as or even more than it will affect live hosts, but citizens can choose which sources they receive such information from—or not to receive that information at all. They cannot choose to watch the debate without whatever commentary that the moderator provides.

More importantly, excessive involvement in a debate would be an abuse of a debate moderator’s privileged place.

The recent controversy surrounding Crowley’s activity in the second debate shows that there is an implicit expectation on the part of the American people that debate moderators create a neutral playing field upon which the candidates compete to persuade voters.

“Providing a fact check is not the job of a debate moderator.” in a political landscape in which truthfulness on the part of the candidates seems to have become a luxury.

However, providing such a fact check is not the job of a debate moderator.

No matter how conscientiously a moderator attempts to be nonpartisan, any fact-checking he or she provides will necessarily be selective and will therefore vio-

If debate moderators are expected to fulfill such a role, they should remain as uninvolved as possible.

Intervention in the form of corrections, however factually grounded and however well intended, would inevitably be shaped by the moderator’s personal views in one way or another and would thus unnecessarily involve the moderator’s opinions.

an attempt to make America to energy-independent.

Romney’s plan would lean more heavily on traditional fuels, while Obama’s plan would include more alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar. However, men though would still invest in traditional and alternative energy forms.

Neither man would lead America off of a cliff immediately. I happen to believe that Obama would drive the car there a little bit more

slowly than Romney. We have been coerced by campaigns and the media into seeing these two candidates as our only options, as though they have polar opposite policies and outlooks.

We actually have more options with third-party candidates that have a wider array of policy differences than Obama and Romney. These candidates offer greater change and could get us off of this highway.

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Opinion

5 November 2012

the Collegian : 9

Talking about Obamacare should involve solutions Largely dismissed in media coverage, moral hazard poses the largest threat to the health care system under ACA. Moral hazard is a condition that encourages people to take risks because they are protected by a safety net. It presents itself in situations where the person incurring the risk does not have to suffer the full consequences of his or her actions.

In the case of the “individual mandate,” moral hazard is dangerous because it will allow the number of insurance claims to increase without any limitations, and can create a system where individuals no lon-

The Affordable Care Act has some real issues that people ignore just to continue partisanship. When talking about it now, we should only talk about potential solutions.

Myriah Downs

Student Writer

Some mistakenly apply the theory without taking into account the additional benefits in purely social issues, such as the federal welfare programs. Moral hazard is sometimes taken as evidence that federal welfare is keeping Americans from pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

Unfortunately, such an analysis is intrinsically flawed because it presupposes that there are no additional factors in the equation, no additional benefits.

America’s legal system has addressed the problem of moral hazard through using public policy to limit liability. For example,

“Because of limiting economic barriers to wellness care, many Americans have conditions that could have been treated”

The debate over President Obama’s signature health reform law, the Affordable Care Act, has been centered on social and opinion-based generalizations. These generalizations range from taxpayers not wanting to pay for the health care for the poor to concerns over “death panels.”

One thing these broad generalizations have in common is they rarely cite the substantive economic evidence of the effect that the ACA will have on Americans. Discussing the ACA without providing any additional analysis is regressive.

Political chatter without any clear objective is harmful, as it wastes valuable energy and public interest in a discussion that could otherwise have resulted in great benefit to the public.

One major substantive critique to the health care reform bill is moral hazard.

ger fear hazardous behavior because there is no direct cost to them. Moral hazard has always been a possible issue with health care reform; however, in the situation of the Affordable Care Act, the entire country can indulge in behavior motivated by moral hazard.

Even the a slight increase in moral hazard—when affecting an entire nation— could prove disastrous. Even if the fees from moral hazard do not render the health care system inoperable, if the costs raise the thresholds for taxes to a point where few Americans can afford them, the Affordable Care Act has frustrated its purpose.

!

S T N E D U T S U T

the law limits the amount of liability a corporation is exposed to in order to encourage economic growth.

The United States is based largely on the free market system, that is to say, our government depends on the success of the market to continue functioning.

This is a symbiotic relationship wherein both parties must take care not to impose too much on the other, which would be detrimental to the quality of life for everyone involved.

What this means is that a potential solution to the issues with moral hazard and the Affordable Care Act might be to impose

TU should embrace extension education initiatives

Extension education provides assistance to those in a college’s community, which enhances the public at large.

Steven Buchele

Student Writer

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Entries must be received by November 15, 2012. Entrants must be registered TU students. Odds of winning depends on number of eligible entries received. In lieu of register to win box, you may also mail a 3”x5” card with your name, address, age, and phone number to TACO BELL®, 3118 E. 11th St, Tulsa, OK, 74104. ©2012 TACO BELL CORP.

limits to the number of claims that individuals could seek coverage for.

Wellness care—this is, prevention of illness by encouraging healthy living—is important in the conversation over the Affordable Care Act because some of the conditions that cost the U.S. the most money are preventable or would have been addressed more completely through wellness care.

Wellness care is underrepresented in the current U.S. health care paradigm.

Because of our capitalist background, the accessibility of wellness care is based on the amount one is able to pay. Healthcare should not be this way, but has historically been.

Because of the economic barriers to wellness care, many Americans are living with conditions that could have been treated beforehand, which leads to larger costs imposed on the general public.

The costs are incurred later by expensive treatments as the condition escalates, as well as in the amount the government must pay to support these individuals while they are unable to work due to the life-threatening conditions they develop.

The important idea is that no one solution is adequate, and our country must find an answer to this question in the coming years.

It is regressive to discuss the Affordable Care Act in any other way than in one that attempts to determine the viability of solutions compared to its many shortcomings.

As a whole Affordable Care Act is not perfect, but affordable and accessible health care is a right that every American deserves.

®

What is the purpose of a college? The education of its students, research or something else? I would propose that the purpose of any institution of higher learning is the advancement of the world’s culture and welfare.

One of the best ways for a university to achieve this goal is through the Cooperative Extension Service, a government program that helps people apply research to improve their lives. This service was created in 1914 with the Smith-Lever Act as an addition to the Morrill Act of 1862. I think that the University of Tulsa should expand its extension program—it may not improve rankings, but its payoffs will be immense.

Extension is important to many institutions—in fact, every land grant college in the country has an extension program. Universities like the University of California, Rutgers University, Cornell University, Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all have these programs.

The purpose of extension programs is to take the research and learning of a college into the world at large.

Right now, college is expensive, but a college education is virtually required for a successful life. Extension programs provide opportunities for people who cannot attend a college or university to learn useful things.

This leads to programs like teaching farmers better growing practices, instructing kids in leadership and citizenship through programs like 4-H, teaching people to live healthier lives with family and consumer science initiatives, or providing lectures about physics online.

Universities make a big deal about sharing discoveries or new ideas between themselves, but with extension, we have the

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opportunity to affect a much wider and possibly more important group of people: the general public.

Learning shouldn’t be restricted to an educated elite. Societies break under such systems. Americans are generally suspicious of any elite class, and the educated elite are no exception. There is something inviting about stories of people who teach themselves everything they need to know and succeed.

What extension does is allow for those people, the future American heroes, to get a jumpstart on their meteoric rise, as well as providing necessary education for those who can get it other ways.

Often, I hear the reports that America is falling behind the world, and the common answer is to find some way to reform the school system and get more graduates.

However, I think more important to our country’s success is the expansion of extension programs.

By educating the general public, we create a society where the act of learning is valued, suddenly a lot of those problems in schools can be solved more easily.

4-H, the world’s largest and most successful youth development organization, and one of the Cooperative Extension Service’s greatest programs, does just that. It creates an environment where learning is fun, something at which traditional schooling often fails.

How can TU begin creating extension opportunities? One thing that many colleges are doing is putting up class lectures and materials online for free public access.

Other private colleges provide “living lectures” that are open to the community and cover topics that would be relevant or interesting to the general population.

Both of these things would be incredibly easy for the university to do. TU could partner with local youth organizations, like 4-H, to provide leadership and learning opportunities for youth and college students.

This is the greatest action a university can take. It may not improve rankings. It may not bring in funding. It may not even improve the university’s reputation, but it will improve the general population.

By providing the world with access to education, the university would be working toward a more educated world where learning is valued, and that can only be a good thing.

editor-in-chief—Kalen Petersen managing editor—J. Christopher Proctor news editor—Kyle Walker sports editor—Aubry Midkiff variety editor—Stephanie Hice opinion editor—Patrick Creedon photo & graphics editor—Jill Graves staff writers—Helen Patterson, Victoria McGouran business & advertising manager—Liz Cohen distribution manager—Tyler Magill web editor—Mary Carol Franko adviser—Kendra Blevins

The State-run media

5 November 2012

the

Electoral College rated No. 1 party school Tim Nissen

Reminding you to vote early, often.

media

Bill Nye: the change America needs

Dear State-Run Media,

The current issue of The Collegian [spits in disdain] contains an article on third-party candidates that blatantly ignores the most important presidential underdog since 1912 Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debbs.

Of all the third-party candidates in the 2012 election, this candidate has the highest chance of bringing about meaningful change in American politics and also receives my endorsement for president of the United States.

His name is Bill Nye the Science Guy. Following his controversial internet video denouncing the teaching of creationism, widespread support for Nye lead to the forma-

tion of the Science Rules Party.

Also known as the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Political Right Hand Ruleâ&#x20AC;? and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bill Is Right Party,â&#x20AC;? the party runs on a platform of science-themed song parodies, colorful bowties and repeatedly chanting â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bill, Bill, BILL, BILL.â&#x20AC;?

After a lengthy vice-presidential search that considered evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins as well as late astronomer Carl Sagan, Nye settled upon fellow childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s television personality and personal enemy of Mitt Romney Big Bird as a running mate.

Despite its humble roots, the Science Rules Party has already received widespread attention from the media. Universally recognized scholars including Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton and

Steadman Upham have given the party their endorsement.

When Republican Senator Todd Akin found out about the Science Rules Party just before speaking a large rally, he considered the it enough of a threat that he vowed before millions to split off and run for president under the reactionary Kill Bill Ticket.

Akin later rescinded his remarks after a hasty conversation with a flustered-looking campaign manager.

I submit to the student voters of TU that the Science Rules Party is just the breath of fresh air that American politics needs. Bill Nye is an outsider to Washington.

Whereas other candidates deal in indirection and equivocation as if they were a science unto themselves, Bill Nye only makes claims that are empirically falsifiableâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;claims like â&#x20AC;&#x153;all things are made up of a small number of other thingsâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;science rules.â&#x20AC;?

In short, a vote for the Science Rules Party is a vote for truth, justice, and the scientific method.

Student Writer According to the recently released Princeton Review rankings, the Electoral College has edged out West Virginia as our nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier party school.

While university representatives generally dislike the title, Electoral College spokesman Theodore Dogherty, after insisting on being called â&#x20AC;&#x153;T-Dog,â&#x20AC;? expressed excitement over the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meteoric rise. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This,â&#x20AC;? explained Dogherty, shifting his â&#x20AC;&#x153;#1 Partierâ&#x20AC;? cap on his brow, â&#x20AC;&#x153;harkens the end of an era of the Electoral College being a pretty lame institution.â&#x20AC;?

The Electoral College has long been known for producing exceptional voters, well-equipped to face the real-life challenges of American federalism.

But as Dogherty, chuckling to himself, informed us, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Electoral College simply canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t attract a broad base of students to a school that hosts only two parties.â&#x20AC;? Several seconds of strained laughter later, Dogherty continued, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Enrollment has stalled at exactly 538 for the past 50 years.â&#x20AC;?

And looking at ECâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s past attempts at boosting enrollment, the stagnant numbers come as no surprise. Electoral Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shortlived football team, the Rogue Voters, never took off. Attempts

to offer scholarships to voters exemplifying the ideals and values of donorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;who were generally presidential candidatesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were shot down as â&#x20AC;&#x153;unethical.â&#x20AC;?

Constant changes in leadership have also plagued the Electoral College, which seems to return internal to dissent and infighting over its leadership every four years.

EC demographics also contribute to the institutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s struggle to remain relevant. The student body is composed entirely of commuters. And surprisinglyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;given the recent rise to prominence in partyingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;EC has a largely middleaged student body.

However, while many would view this high median age as an obstacle to the Electoral College being (to borrow Doghertyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s term) â&#x20AC;&#x153;renowned for raging,â&#x20AC;? Mr. Dogherty himself has a different take: â&#x20AC;&#x153;if you think about it, every student can buy booze. And most are hitting mid-life crises.â&#x20AC;?

Despite a general air of optimism, during the interview, Dogherty communicated a somber determination to end the Electoral Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history as a no-name school. At the interviewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conclusion, Dogherty, narrowing his eyes and shifting the Tapout lapel pin in his suit coat, asserted: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m sick of being told that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Not a real college.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; This #1 ranking is our only shot at notoriety. So, I say, shots! Shots! Shots!â&#x20AC;?

Most Nye-riffically, Conor Fellin

Graphic by Cameron Cross

Graphic by Cody Green

May  2013  Graduates  Nominate  a  Secondary  School  Teacher  For  The  Prize  for  Inspiration Â

1. Nominations may be made by any undergraduate who expects to graduate in May, 2013.

2. Nominations are due by 5:00 PM on December 8, 2012 and should be

via-­email as follows: College of Arts and Sciences: Stephanie-­Boulden@utulsa.edu College of Business Administration: Chante-­clarkson@utulsa.edu College of Engineering & Natural Sciences: Dottie-­Smith@utulsa.edu 3. Teachers selected will receive a $2,000 award and their high schools will receive $1,000. The teachers will be recognized during the May commencement ceremony.

High school teachers throughout the USA are eligible.

4. Students whose nominated teachers are selected will receive $500.

5. For more

information including the nomination criteria go to the Student Affairs website: http://www.utulsa.edu/studentaffairs.