6 April 2015

Elias Brinkman / Collegian

News

The Collegian: 2

6 April 2015

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Oscar Ho Student Writer French hostage survivors sue news outlets Hostage survivors are suing several news outlets, saying that they may have endangered lives during the Paris attacks in January. Two days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks on January 7, Amedy Coulibaly took several hostages inside a Jewish supermarket, killing four. Six of the survivors claim that live coverage of the crisis “lacked the most basic precautions,” according to Patrick Klugman, the plaintiffs’ lawyer. BFMTV had revealed live on air that several people, including children, were hiding in the cold room.

“The disclosure of the presence of people hiding, during a hostage situation, is an error which cannot go unpunished,” Klugman told Paris Match. “A piece of information, even if it is true, must not put lives in danger.” Several TV stations have also been blamed for revealing the movements of specialist police forces outside the supermarket.

It is known that Coulibaly was monitoring the news, including BFM, during the attack.

The Doctor Will Be In: KEP Mon & Tues, April 6th and 7th | 10 - 2 pm Case Athletic Center Wed & Thurs, April 8th and 9th | 10 - 2 pm

Wednesday, April 15th - 1:00 PM—4:00 PM

Reign Cane Kick-Off Party Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Student Union Great Hall 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Free Chipotle T-Shirts for the first 75 students @TUSpringfest_15 #Springfest2k15

Too thin models banned from catwalk in France French MPs have passed a law banning the use of extremely thin models. As part of a larger health law, the rule says “anyone whose body mass index ... is below a certain level will not be able to work as a catwalk model.” MP Olivier Veran had previously said the minimum BMI would be set at 18. The rule also contains severe penalties for agencies that force models to lose too much weight.

Yemeni president flees Aden due to Houthi rebels One month ago, Houthi rebels advanced toward the city of Aden, where the Yemeni president fled after the government’s overthrow last fall. Eventually, the rebels started working their way into Aden, prompting daily air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition.

Although forces loyal to the Yemeni president have been helped by the Saudi air strikes and weapons drops, the Houthi managed to capture much of the city, and the president has fled again, this time to Saudi Arabia. The conflict’s death toll has skyrocketed. UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said that over 500 had died and 1700 were wounded during the last two weeks.

The Red Cross says that the streets are “strewn with bodies,” calling for regular ceasefires to remove the dead, treat the wounded, and evacuate foreigners. On Friday, Russia subsequently called on the UN Security Council to impose a temporary break on the air strikes for humanitarian purposes, but members have so far offered no opinions.

The Yemeni crisis is proving to be an international problem. China sent a frigate to evacuate its citizens, the first time it has ever done so. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim nation, suspects that the Shia Houthi are proxies of Iran. The United States is worried about Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which opposes both the Houthi and the legitimate Yemeni government. AQAP, although not currently involved in the large scale fighting, has a chance at beating the Houthis and taking control of the country.

News

6 April 2015

The Collegian: 3

TU endowment passes one billion dollars

The University of Tulsa’s endowment recently passed $1 billion. That money covers about $50 million of TU’s $200 million operating budget, as part of a payout policy.

Nathaniel Beckemeyer Student Writer

According to TU’s financial audits, total endowment for 2014 surpassed $1 billion for the first time in school history.

Endowments typically pay out about 5 percent, which means that the University of Tulsa’s “endowment generates approximately $50 million per year toward our overall operating budget of more than $200 million,” according to Kevan Buck, our Executive Vice President and Treasurer.

An endowment is a fund to which supporters make taxdeductible donations. That money is then invested to increase its worth, and there is a small payout which the university can spend.

However, Buck points out that “endowment earnings are unique

Nathaniel Beckemeyer / Collegian This chart shows TU’s endowment adjusted for inflation. Years before 2011 have been slightly additionally adjusted to account for contribution receivables. Data courtesy the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the University of Tulsa Audit reports and the US Inflation Calculator.

in that they must be expended based on the donors’ requests.

Most of the funds are earmarked for scholarships, faculty chairs or specific support of departments, athletic activities, building construction or maintenance, etc.” The remaining funds can be

treated as normal income.

Endowment has climbed nearly $300 million over the past 6 years.

As visible from the graph, the exact number fluctuates widely.

Buck explained why: “As with any investment fund, TU’s endowment is subject to the

vagaries of the financial markets.

It is impossible to predict [future returns].

“For example, during the past three years, annual returns have varied from 1.5 percent to 15.4 percent ... It is our hope that the endowment will continue to

grow,” he said.

The recession caused a large drop from 2008 to 2009. Since 2000, TU’s endowment has never dropped below 700 million dollars.

TU tuition scheduled to increase fall 2015 Tuition at the University of Tulsa is going up. That helps to cover a high operating budget, but also inconveniences some students. This increase follows a 27-year trend.

Nathaniel Beckemeyer Staff Writer According to the University of Tulsa, tuition is increasing next semester to $38,556 for the year.

However, that price is only for the incoming freshmen. Continuing students will only see their tuition rise to $36,802, according to Earl Johnson, the Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Services.

Johnson observed that “the rate of increase allows TU to maintain its position as one of the lowestpriced private universities among U.S. News and World Report’s Top 100 national universities and among our peer institutions.”

TU has an “overall operating budget of more than $200 million,” according to Kevan Buck, our Executive Vice President and Treasurer. “During the last fiscal year, student tuition covered just 37 percent of TU’s total budget.”

Of course, the increase in tu-

Mar. 30 1:00 p.m.

Officers were on routine patrol when they conducted a pedestrian check on a person at the practice soccer field. The person was not affiliated with TU and did not have any warrants or previous contact card with security on record with the communication center. Officers issued the person a trespass warning contact card and asked them to leave campus.

3:40 p.m.

Officers were dispatched to Phillips Hall in regards to personal property being stolen. Upon arrival the victim explained that things

tuition for incoming students from the 1987–88 school year until the 2015–16 school year.

This graph charts

ition causes problems for some students.

One TU sophomore, Luke Wagner, said, “It’s not breaking the bank, but it’s inconvenient. I have already maxed out my subsidized loans, so now I will have to take

had been taken from their locker.

Camera footage is being reviewed to identify any person of interest.

Mar. 31 2:00 p.m.

While on routine patrol officers observed a dog at Dietler Commons a student said it belonged to their friend and took it the dog .

Approximately 30 minutes later another student stated that they had lost his dog, similar to the one earlier. The officer stated that somebody had claimed a similar dog and were trying to return it.

10:47 Officers were dispatched to in-

Nathaniel Beckemeyer / Collegian

out more unsubsidized [loans and] will have to pay more interest earlier. Not only am I paying for TU, I’m paying for the money that I’m having to take out for TU.” Rising tuition is common amongst private universities. Col-

lege Board reports that, adjusting for inflation, tuition for private non-profit universities in Oklahoma has risen by about $6,000 on average over the past ten years.

Over the past 28 years, TU tuition has climbed from just over

$10,000 (inflation-adjusted) to next fall’s cost of $38,000. Starting in the fall semester, tuition at the university will have risen by $10,000 (inflation-adjusted) since 2010.

vestigate a suspicious odor. Upon arrival officers made contact with the resident of the room where the odor was reported coming from.

Officers were unable to smell anything however, the resident admitted to be smoking a berry flavored e-cigarette.

er’s License. Ownership was also verbally verified. Officers then issued a warning to the vehicle and the owner explained that this vehicle was a rental and they would be speaking to security about their permit.

arrived on scene and insurance information was exchanged and there were no injuries from either parties. Storey took possession of the students vehicle since it was non drivable.

April 1 12:33 p.m.

Officers on routine patrol in the Allen Chapman Student Union Lot made contact with the owner of an unregistered vehicle. The owner tried to explain that they were a visitor but upon further questioning, they admitted they were an employee. Officers confirmed their identity via a University of Tulsa (TU) ID. Ownership was also verbally verified. Officers then registered the vehicle and instructed the owner to buy a parking permit.

2:00 a.m.

Officers were dispatched to receive found jewelry from a university employee. The jewelry was found at the Donald Reynolds Center following an event that was held in the building. The jewelry was placed in the property locker for safekeeping. The student was not compliant, got upset when they were told they would get a ticket. The student became belligerent toward the officer. The student was asked twice for their university identification card, and they refused. The student backed their car and drove off.

1:59 p.m.

Officers on routine patrol in the Mayo Village Apartment Lot made contact with the owner of an unregistered vehicle. The owner claimed they did not have student ID, but upon retrieving their Driver’s License, pushed passed their ID. Their identity however, was sufficiently verified by their Driv-

8:10 p.m.

Officers were dispatched to 11th and Delaware in reference to a TU student that was involved in a motor vehicle accident with a non-student. The TU student was going through intersection of 11th and Delaware when they got hit on the driver side by a vehicle heading west on 11th street. TPD

April 2 1:35 a.m.

Officers were dispatched to possible injured person. Upon arrival they made contact with a university associated guest who was injured after falling while exiting the North doors of subway at the Allen Chapman Student Union. The guest declined EMSA and selftransported to urgent care.

2:22 p.m.

Officers on routine patrol a vehicle was found parked contrary to university policy and officers verified that said vehicle had been identified as a habitual offender vehicle. Towing of the vehicle was authorized by the on-duty supervisor and the vehicle was towed off campus without incident.

The Collegian does not produce or edit the Campus Crime Watch except for content and brevity.

News

The Collegian: 4

6 April 2015

Faculty diversity measures an uneven success

Although TU has made gains in faculty diversity since President Upham took office, changes have been irregular, affecting some groups more than others, and there’s been little in the way of dramatic diversification.

Kyle Walker Editor-in-Chief

American universities love to trumpet the diversity of their student body, and the University of Tulsa fits right into this stereotype.

A page called “Diversity at TU” on the university’s new website touts the international diversity of TU’s students, who number over 1,000 and hail from over 70 countries.

That page makes no mention of TU’s faculty.

Yet faculty diversity has been a concern of elite American universities since at least the 1990s. Schools like Harvard, Duke and Virginia Tech launched ambitious diversity programs in 1990s and 2000s, and others weren’t far behind.

Those who were here at the time say TU has been working in that direction since President Steadman Upham took the helm in 2004. Professor Vicki Limas of the College of Law was then chair of the Equal Access and Opportunity Committee (EAOC), a faculty and administrative body charged with monitoring the status of underrepresented groups at TU. “When President Upham started,” Limas said, “one of his absolute priorities was to diversify the faculty. That’s been a focus of the administration.”

In the ten years since 2004, TU has seen mixed success.

Diversity efforts Upham enlisted the help of the EAOC in 2006, when a donation from the Chapman Trusts allowed the university to inaugurate its Wellspring program, which added nine new junior faculty positions starting in 2007.

In his March 2006 Spring Letter to the Campus Community, Upham wrote that he had asked the EAOC to “serve in an advisory capacity” on each of the Wellspring searches “to make sure we take full advantage of this opportunity to diversify the faculty.”

The Wellspring program was not specifically aimed at improving diversity, according to Provost Roger Blais. Though it did present an opportunity. Blais says that TU does what it can to hire diverse faculty for both Wellspring and regular positions.

This includes maintaining annual diversity placement goals, set by the administration.

According to Wayne Paulison, Associate Vice President for Human Resources, TU has regularly exceeded these goals “For the past five years … minorities comprised an average of 21.3 percent of newly hired faculty,” Paulison said. The average placement goal for those years was 18.6 percent.

“During the period of Nov. 1, 2013, through Oct. 31, 2014, TU hired 34 faculty members. Of this number, 15 were female and 10 were minorities,” according to Paulison.

But the hiring process is complicated. Human Resources does not hire faculty—other faculty do, which means that the faculty need to be as committed to diversity as the administration.

At least, that’s the view of Dr. JC Diaz, Professor of Computer Science and current chair of the

University Seminar— a study in improving TU The first annual gathering of the University Seminar is looking to capitalize on TU’s strengths and face up to its challenges.

Kyle Walker Editor-in-Chief “It’s sort of a think tank,” is how Dr. Denise Dutton described the University Seminar. This yearlong discussion group dedicated to examining challenges facing higher education in general and the University of Tulsa in particular.

This year, the seminar focuses on the topic, “What distinguishes a TU education, and how can we make it better?”

The group, composed of faculty and administrators, will present its findings to university leaders at the end of the year. The resulting report will also be bound and housed in McFarlin Library’s Special Collections.

This is expected to be an annual process.

Dutton is serving as facilitator and coordinator for this year’s University Seminar, the first after a years-long hiatus. Though a similar program was pioneered in the 1990s by a university chaplain, it took on a more regimented format, complete with syllabus, and did not last.

The reboot is different. Each participant, nominated by the Dean’s Council or the Provost, has an opportunity to lead a discussion on a subject of their choosing. As a result, the seminar has taken on wide-ranging subjects.

The two most recent meetings have “investigated the way in which diversity enhances our educational mission,” Dutton said.

Physics professor Dr. Scott Holmstrom is one of the participants who brought the diversity issue to the seminar. His particular concern is faculty diversity.

“Our faculty isn’t representative of our community,” he said.

EAOC. Other topics include college affordability and accessibility, course evaluations and what they actually measure, academic integrity and TU’s small size.

In the spirit of supporting the educational mission of the university, seminar members are thinking about the role of faculty in passing on and modelling norms of academic integrity.

This goes hand-in-hand with learning.

“If we encourage students to engage in superficial or strategic learning, then it isn’t clear why academic integrity is important,” Dutton said.

Similarly, TU’s size brings with it advantages and disadvantages for supporting a liberal education.

“Our size allows us a certain intimacy,” Dutton said. “You can individualize your education here.

What are we doing that makes that possible?”

The seminar also serves to produce, increase and deepen connections between colleges. Participants include one faculty member from each college, nominated by their respective dean.

The seminar thus builds on an existing tradition of intercollegiate cooperation, a tradition perhaps represented in microcosm by the booklet “Life of Inquiry,” co-edited by Dr. John Henshaw of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Dr. Joli Jensen of the Faculty of Communication. The booklet contains short essays from faculty in each of the colleges, and is directed at prospective students.

“There are not many schools where professors in Engineering and Natural Sciences are regularly working with professors in Arts and Sciences,” Dutton said.

At the end of April, the seminar group will informally discuss their findings with university leaders before preparing a report at the end of the year. The bound report will be presented to the president’s executive staff.

Wade Crawford contributed to this report.

Kyle Walker / Collegian This chart shows the proportion of TU’s tenured and tenure-track faculty made up by underrepresented groups.

“To change you’ve got to change the culture,” Diaz said. “It’s to the advantage of TU to have a diverse faculty—so we need faculty to understand that.”

Limas says that the College of Law already does. “We try to put a diverse group of people on the hiring committee,” she said. That committee also includes a student representative.

Recruiting and maintaining a diverse faculty is not as simple as making diverse hires. Those new professors need to stick around.

Limas, Diaz and Dr. Susan Chase, Chair of Sociology, all identified retention as a major challenge to diversity efforts.

Demographic changes The high point of racial and ethnic diversity among TU faculty came in 2012, when members of underrepresented groups made up 16.5 percent of TU’s tenured and tenure-track faculty, according to data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

The next year, that number fell to 13.9 percent, close to TU’s ten-year average for 2004–2014 of 14.4. Last fall, it rose to 15.6 percent. When President Upham took office in 2004, underrepresented groups made up 12.6 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty.

Though they seem revealing, these numbers actually conceal a great deal of important information about what particular groups are represented in TU’s faculty.

For example, during the period 2004–2014, the number of black faculty members was very nearly constant. That number?

Three. At present, AfricanAmericans make up 0.9 percent of all faculty at TU. According to Dr. JC Diaz, Professor of Computer Science and current chair of the Equal Access and Opportunity Committee, the lack of African-American professors is the committee’s current focus.

TU initially made gains in gender diversity, but these vanished quickly. The

proportion of women among tenured and tenure-track faculty started at 26.5 percent in 2004, rose to 27.5 percent by 2006, but fell to 23.2 percent in 2014.

Other groups are much better represented or saw gains during this period.

Native Americans, for instance, are much better represented at TU than at other schools like it. By 2014, TU had gained 14 Native American faculty for a total of 28.

In 2004, Native Americans made up 3.8 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty. They now make up 4.2 percent.

At many similar institutions, this is not the case. In 2013, Native Americans made up less than 0.5 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty at each of the following universities: Baylor, Duke, Rice, SMU, TCU, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Washington University in St. Louis.

Faculty members of Asian descent are also well represented at TU, consistently making up five to six percent of tenured faculty—8 percent in 2014.

The number of Hispanic professors in tenured or tenuretrack positions had doubled by 2012. In 2004 they made up 1.3 percent of those positions. They now make up 2.3 percent.

Evaluating diversity “Our faculty isn’t representative of our community,” explained Dr. Scott Holmstrom, Professor of Physics.

Holmstrom is a member of this year’s University Seminar, a group of faculty and administrators charged with crafting innovative responses to challenges facing the university. His topic at the seminar is faculty diversity. “‘Community’ can be as big as you want,” he said, but the student population is a good yardstick.

It’s important to have a diverse faculty, he said, not simply for the sake of diversity itself, but for the sake of students and the academic life of the university.

“If you have a faculty and administration that is diverse, you’re validating the presence of diverse students,” he said.

Dr. Susan Chase, Chair of Sociology, agreed. “All students should be able to see people like them—as well as people different

from them—reflected at all levels of the university,” she said.

So how well does TU’s faculty reflect its student body? Here, too, results are uneven. TU’s student body is unique in that around one quarter of its members are international. Since the NCES only records the race and ethnicity of U.S. citizens or green card holders, no effective comparison can really be made with respect to international diversity. This analysis must confine itself to the domestic student body. Data are from 2013.

Excluding international students, the student body has a leg up on the faculty when it comes to aggregate diversity: underrepresented groups make up roughly 22 percent of the domestic student body, but only 16 percent of all domestic faculty.

But as before, things get complicated when the populations are broken down by group.

Of all underrepresented groups, the only one where the proportion of faculty from that group equals or exceeds the proportion of students is Asians. Native American, African-American and Hispanic faculty all make up a smaller proportion of total faculty than students from those groups do of the student body.

The most striking example is that of African-Americans. In 2013, TU had 3 African-American faculty (0.9 percent), but 181 African-American students (5.3 percent).

Diversity has other impacts as well. Holmstrom pointed to a decade of psychological research that correlates diversity with positive outcomes (like better group problem solving) and homogeneity with negative outcomes (like decreased innovation).

“There’s real tangible value in diversity,” he said. “It may be harder to work in a diverse environment … but that’s not what makes you smarter. Diversity makes us smarter. Diversity makes us a stronger institution.”

TU is required by law to report to the NCES. The most recent statistics available through NCES go up to 2013. Data for 2014 were provided by TU.

News

6 April 2015

The Collegian: 5

House and Phan among SA presidential candidates Chorale This week, SA Executive Elections will be held. Whitney House, part of the United 4 TU ticket, is running for President.

Michaela Flonard Apprentice Editor During orientation week her freshman year, Whitney House first knew she wanted to be a part of SA. At the time, she was only interested in Senate. Now, she is hoping to be elected as President, on the United 4 TU ticket. The ticket is comprised of Lauren Holmes, for Vice President, Grace Doyle for Secretary, and Matt Neyer for Treasurer.

House has served in the Senate and, this past year, was Vice President. This experience, she believes, has given her the knowledge of how to get things done as a member of SA. As a Senator, she was an integral part of changing TU’s non-discrimination policy to include gender identity and sexual orientation.

One of House’s main goals is “transparency between SA and students.” She hopes SA will have a place in Hardesty Hall.

There, minutes of previous meetings would be posted, along with a comment board for new student ideas.

And while students may know Cabinet because of Springfest and other events, House believes that Senate has a more negative connotation, as a result of their

financial work with organizations.

House hopes to make the funding process easier for organizations.

Lauren Holmes, the VP on House’s ticket, is working on legislation to help “really small and really big organizations.”

This legislation, while still unfinished, would help small organizations who don’t know what attendance levels to events will be by giving their funding a little “wiggle room.” If elected, House hopes to advocate for change such as this.

House also hopes to use the SA budget “more creatively.” She would like to allow Senate committees to have a small budget, so they could hold events to gather student opinions. Organizations could also be invited to share thoughts on making the funding process easier.

Within SA, House would like to revamp the Cabinet.

Currently, executive directors within Cabinet are allowed to have several associate directors. These associate directors may only be in charge of a small task, such as phone calls. House would like to “allow associate directors to work in Cabinet wherever needed.”

On the same note, House would also like to extend the deadline for applications for associate director, to attract a wider pool of students.

One of the more fun things House wants to advocate is a SA-held formal. House believes it would be a “fun way for SA to give back.” This idea came from Grace Doyle, the Secretary on House’s ticket.

Junior Tavis Phan is running for SA President.

Brennen VanderVeen Politics Reporter Tavis Phan is a junior biology pre-med major running for president. He is currently a senator for the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences. He is also a member of the Student Organization Committee (SOC) and a nonvoting member of the Student Investigative Committee (SIC). As an SIC member, Phan has been able to be a part of SA discussions for various resolutions. Phan says finding solutions to student problems was his original reason for getting involved with SA. If elected, Phan would like SA to have a larger and more diverse audience. He says he wants to create a better outreach program so that “a wider spectrum of students” gets involved with SA. Phan also has experience with Greek, ENS, athletic and honors organizations.

Specifically, he’s the external vice president of the fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha, president of Scroll Honor Society, former president of the Interfraternity Council and former president of Lantern Honor Society. He has also been a university ambassador and orientation leader. He plays for the Tulsa Lacrosse Club as well. Phan believes this wide range of organizations has taught him “how to problem-solve in high-stress situations” and will help him reach a diverse audience.

Common Sense Action merges with Run for America Millennial-focused bipartisan organizations Common Sense Action and Run for America announce plans to join forces and secure House seats in 2016.

Kayleigh Thesenvitz Apprentice Editor Common Sense Action is in the process of merging with Run for America later. The two organizations decided the merge would be beneficial due to their similar missions and ideals. The new organization will be called Run for America Action.

The mission statement of Common Sense Action is, “To bring Millennial voices to the policymaking table and build a movement of Millennial voters committed to advancing generational fairness, investing in Millennial mobility and repairing politics.”

Run for America’s mission is “to recruit, train and work to elect a new generation of leaders to Congress who are committed to a solutions-first, future-focused approach to tackling our major national challenges.”

When it was still an independent organization, Run for America had a goal

to run 12 candidates of both parties for the House of Representatives in 2016.

Now that Run for America is paired with Common Sense Action, they can work toward that same goal with a larger backing of supporters.

Andrew Cummings, the president of TU’s chapter of CSA said, “Run for America allows CSA to take our mission to the next level. This merger connects a passionate, student-led grassroots network with the resources necessary to have a measurable impact in Washington. Change is always difficult, but it’s an exciting time for CSA.” Nikki Hager, Midwest Regional Director and co-founder of the TU chapter of CSA said, “Where politics happens is at elections.

Getting our agenda out to the candidates and by getting our network mobilized will increase our chances of having our voices heard.”

The two Oklahoma chapters of CSA hope to get millennial voters to the polls to make up for the age discrepancies among Oklahoman voters.

Lauren Aragon, the president of OU’s chapter, said that millennials “should be more involved because currently primaries and most elections are determined by older members of our society that do not have the same priorities as us. We need to ensure that our priorities are being heard so

we can provide for a better tomorrow for ourselves.”

That sentiment was echoed by Cummings. “It’s no secret that Oklahoma is seen as a perennially red state,” he said, “[but] this year actually marked the first time that registered Republican voters outnumbered registered Democrats in Oklahoma—and by less than a tenth of a percent … Oklahoma is a diverse state with a wide-range of voices to be heard, and only bipartisanship can bring those voices into a positive, productive dialogue.”

The future is not set in stone for Run for America Action, but it’s members are hopeful.

Hager said, “I’m looking forward to the merger with RFA, I think that we have a lot of exciting things coming up in terms of expanding on what CSA is able to do now that we are able to really get involved in elections and start stirring the pot a little bit more.”

Aragon agreed. “I think it’s a great organization to partner with because they can help further our ideas. We can craft the policies that RFA promotes and make this an incredible viable partnership.”

The real importance of these organizations is to get millennials excited about politics and the changes they can make.

Cummings said, “50 percent of millennials

performs Friday

Michaela Flonard Apprentice Editor On Friday, April 10, the School of Music will present the TU Chorale for their spring concert. The event will be conducted by Dr. Kim Childs.

When Childs first came to the university, only one choir existed. Due to growth in the choir’s numbers, Childs decided to divide the program into the chamber singers (a capella) and the chorale. The chorale is the larger of the two and tends to perform smaller pieces. Several non-music majors, from engineers to nurses, are part of the chorale.

Friday’s concert will feature four student conductors, who have all been taught by Childs: Carter Jameson, Katie Creed, Thomas Adams and Melanie Piché. The role of student conductors has developed over the last few years, according to Childs, and this year features the greatest number of student conductors.

This concert is a “venue for talented conductors to develop pieces for concert,” Childs said.

Music in the concert is from the Renaissance to the 21st century.

Childs said the chorale is performing such varied music because it gives “variety of choral sounds and experiences.” Some pieces will be in a different language, such as Latin, and there will be religious and secular texts.

An Americana-style piece by Randall Thompson will be performed, as well as a Buddhist mantra piece. There will also be compositions from the late 1500s and contemporary ballads.

Following the precedent set by the last few concerts, this concert will be opened by the TU jazz group InTUition.

The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Gussman Concert Hall in the Lorton Performance Center. identify as political independents. We are innovative, skeptical, passionate and socially-aware. Yet only 21.7 percent of eligible 18-29 year-olds in Oklahoma voted in the 2012 election. The reality is that our voices are not being represented and they will continue to be unrepresented until millennials start to take seriously their ability to create political change.”

The roughly 40 chapters of CSA scattered in universities across the nation will not be undergoing much change. The chapters will retain their current name until the end of the school year. Although the chapters’ structure will change a bit, their goals will remain the same.

The chapter at TU is hosting activities to involve students in their progress. Their next upcoming event will be a trivia night and sundae bar at The Hut on April 16th.

This meeting is geared to get students talking about political issues. More information about the event can be found on their facebook page.

Monday, April 6 - 11 Kappa Sigma holds week-long Olympic Philanthropy Week

Thursday, April 9 Lectureship in Politics and Law

Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., will give two talks. “The Labor Market Effects of the Affordable Care Act” will be from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in the Dean’s Conference Room in Chapman Hall. “Inequality in American Society - Should We Blame the Market” will be begin at 7 p.m. in the Chapman Hall Lecture Hall.

Saturday, April 11 YWCA Wine, Women and Shoes

Join us Saturday, April 11 at Central Park Hall in Expo Square from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for our 10th annual Wine, Women, and Shoes event! NEW THIS YEAR In honor of YWCA Tulsa’s 101st year of service and on the tail of the incredible “100 Women with Moxie” celebration, we are thrilled to announce the inaugural “YWCA Women of the Year” award!

Nominations for the YWCA Women of the Year will be accepted through March 13, with 10 nominees being featured at Wine, Women, and Shoes. These 10 women will snag coveted modeling positions in the event’s fashion show – a colorful display of high fashion and fun!

From Monday April 6–Saturday April 11, the Kappa Sigma Fraternity will be hosting their annual Olympics Philanthropy Week benefitting the Little Light House. The Little Light House is a tuition-free Christian development center that provides education and therapeutic services for children with special needs ages six and younger.

All events throughout the week will have opportunities to donate and/or purchase raffle tickets. All money raised will be given directly to the Little Light House and all donations are appreciated.

On Monday, April 6, Kappa Sigma will host their philanthropy dinner from 5–7 p.m. at their house. It will be catered by Burn Co Barbecue and will have vegetarian options available. The dinner costs $5.00 for an all-you-can-eat barbecue buffet. Raffle tickets will be available for purchase.

Tuesday, April 7, is Movie Night at The Reynolds Center from 6–8 p.m. This is the first annual Kappa Sigma Movie Night and it hopes to raise a considerable amount of money and awareness for the Little Light House. The movie being shown is The Lego Movie and the event is open to campus as well as the children and families of the Little Light House. Admission is free, though donations and raffle tickets will be available for those wanting to contribute.

Friday, April 10, Kappa Sigma is bringing in Rockwell Knuckles, a rapper from St. Louis, to play a concert from 9–10:30 p.m. on Kappa Sigma’s front lawn. Admission to this concert is free and it is open to all of campus. This event will be everyone’s last chance to purchase raffle tickets or to make donations to the Little Light House.

On Saturday, April 11, there is a dance competition between all the sororities from 8–10 p.m. The dance will be on Kappa Sigma’s side-porch and all are welcome to come and watch. In between dances Kappa Sigma will announce the winners of the various raffle prizes. The night will conclude with revealing the winner of the dance competition.

Kappa Sigma encourages everyone to participate in their philanthropy week.

Questions can be addressed by Matt Neyer at Matt-Neyer@utulsa.edu.

This news brief was written by Ryan Token.

The Collegian does not produce all event descriptions in the Community Calendar.

Contact News Editor Morgan Krueger at morgan-krueger@utulsa.edu with events.

News

The Collegian : 6

6 April 2015

Heartland Gaming Expo

TU-hosted gaming expo expands

Courtesy University of Tulsa At last year’s Heartland Gaming Expo, a vendor showed off a game that used the Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles to a crowd of students. This year’s expo will feature even more displays from local and national video game companies.

Three years after it was first conceived, the Heartland Gaming Expo is moving to a larger venue so it can host more events for a wider audience.

Conor Fellin Managing Editor The Heartland Gaming Expo, the University of Tulsa’s annual celebration of the creation and enjoyment of video games, will be expanding to include a larger venue, industry speakers and booths from national gaming companies, among other things.

All of this from an exhibition that started out as a class event a mere three years ago.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Roger Mailler organized the first predecessor of the Heartland Gaming Expo in 2012 when he invited members of the TU community to a demo session for games developed in his video game programming class.

Somewhere between thirty to fifty spectators showed up to the event, prompting Mailler to consider how to expand it. Wanting to bring together members of TU’s various colleges, he reached out to Dr. Joseph Rivers of the music and film studies departments, Dr. Jennifer Airey of the English department and Dr. Aaron Higgins of the art department, among others.

Together they created an event centered around three main competitions: a gaming showcase where students present games they have created in the last year; a gallery for submitting artwork, designs and other incomplete artifacts of games; and a contest to create a game from scratch in 24 hours.

Students from universities across Oklahoma were invited to participate. For two years, these competitions were housed in the upper levels of ACAC. This year, however, the Heartland Gaming Expo will be moving to the Cox Business Center downtown, and its program will expand accordingly.

For starters, Mailler is opening up the event so that people who like playing video

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“With this kind of rawness, we hope that this will be a talk that people will be talking about for a while.” crowdsourced multiplayer platformer where spectators can alter the gameplay by tweeting special effects at a match-specific Twitter handle.

A number of game and simulation companies, both local and national, will be presenting their wares at the expo. Tokyo in Tulsa will also be setting up camp there, as will local game store PJ Gamers with a Magic: The Gathering tournament.

The game expo will also feature speakers from the gaming industry, including Oscarwinning movie and video game composer Chance Thomas and Richard Huenink, the producer of survival horror game “7 Days to Die.” One of the speakers, Eric Peterson, will be delivering a lecture the day after his massive attempt to crowdfund the video game Star Citizen ends in success or failure. “With this kind of rawness, we hope that this will be a talk that people will be talking about for a

contest will be situated in the middle of the convention hall while the expo is in full swing.

Furthermore, the programmers will be expected to maintain a live blog over the course of the competition. In a nod to “The Hunger Games,” audience members can vote for teams to receive catered food and other prizes in the middle of the competition.

Mailler notes that while a large number of students from outside schools have registered to compete in the Expo, TU students are lagging behind with the competitions about to fill up. “[TU students] think, ‘Yeah, I’ll just be able to get in,’” Mailler said, thinking back to the smaller expos of years past. “They’re wrong, and from now on, they probably will be.”

Full disclosure: Conor Fellin has worked on past Heartland Gaming Expos.

Matt Harmon’s latest game is receiving both content and funds from its avid Twitch viewers.

ment process to Twitch viewers.

“None of these people have finished a game before,” Harmon said. “They’re all top-of-their-class, but they haven’t finished a game.”

Because of this, Harmon’s opinion holds some significant sway among the contributors. Even when he opens issues up to a vote, he finds that his opinion often determines the outcome of the vote.

“Top Caster” is crowdfunded as well as crowdsourced, and contributions can earn those who contribute an early release version of the game, their name in the credits or even their Twitch profile picture attached to an enemy in the game.

“I think that I’m on to something and that this is showing signs of the future of game development,” Harmon said.

Harmon will also be speaking at the conference, though he has not yet decided what he will talk about.

Conor Fellin Managing Editor Debuting at this year’s Heartland Gaming Expo will be a demo of “Top Caster,” a crowd sourced game helmed by local game programmer and producer Matt Harmon.

Harmon (whose credits include “And 1 Streetball,” “Terminator 3” and “The Mask”) had been planning on developing a game whose story was based on the culture of live streaming platform Twitch.tv.

When Harmon announced his plans on Twitch, he received an influx of graphics and code from Twitch viewers. After looking at these contributions, Harmon decided to step back and open up the entire develop-

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Even this year’s 24-hour programming contest (or “Code Jam”) is more oriented towards spectators. In what TU junior and Heartland volunteer Matt Hruz described as a “programmer zoo,” participants in the

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The Collegian: 7

6 April 2015

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Variety

The Collegian: 8

6 April 2015

Baseball and the absurd: a coming-of-age story Growing up alone beneath the eternally cloudy St. Louis skies, I was soon forced to confront the fact that even baseball provided little solace.

Conor Fellin Managing Editor

Elias Brinkman / Collegian

My childhood bedroom had no ornamentation in it, save a single framed photograph of Stan Musial that sat on my nightstand. As I tried to fall asleep I would stare at the photograph and feel its weight in my hands.

Only when I reached adolescence did it occur to me to ask who this man was and why I should care about him. He was a player for my beloved baseball team, I was informed.

Surprised to discover that I possessed a baseball team and that I loved them, I decided I would take the next opportunity I could to go to their stadium and find out what exactly they did for me.

When I first arrived at the stadium, I did not know you needed a ticket to get in and was turned away. Knowing how much it cost to attend a baseball game only deepened my conviction that whatever happened in that stadium must truly provide consolation for all who attended.

Later in life when I had my first part-time job, I could finally afford

to go to a baseball game. I entered the stadium, found my assigned seat and waited for the game to start.

It was only an hour later that I mustered the courage to ask the person sitting next to me when the baseball game would start. She informed me that the game had already started and was in something called the fourth inning.

With horror, I looked down to the field and realized that the people who had been throwing around a small white ball were the baseball game. They were trying to communicate something to me, and I had missed the beginning of the message.

I focused intently on throw after throw, trying to decipher the way in which my baseball team would vindicate my life. But as the game wore on and I came no closer to discovering its meaning, doubt slowly crept into my mind. What if I would never figure out the meaning of baseball?

Eventually, a batter missed the ball just as he and others had a hun-

dred times already, and the game’s cruel masters declared it over. “We won,” people began cheering.

“No. We’ve lost,” I screamed, but my voice was drowned out in the drone of the masses.

Desperate for an answer but secretly expecting none, I turned to the woman beside me and asked her what she stood to gain from watching the baseball game. She stared at me for a second, and said, “Well, nothing. It’s not that I gain from watching baseball. It’s just something I like to do.”

Though I didn’t realize it at the time, those words contained the one solace that would help me understand why people gave their hard-earned money to a baseball team season after season.

The team isn’t theirs because it provides them with some intrinsic good. It’s theirs because they claim it as their own, knowing that this claim is just as meaningful as any intrinsic connection. They wisely produce meaning where they know there is none to be found.

“Kintsugi” delivers complex, pleasing songs Death Cab for Cutie’s recently relased album, “Kintsugi,” rearranges the pieces of the band’s career into something new.

Adam Lux Student Writer The first time I ever heard Death Cab for Cutie was my freshman year of high school. I was given a CD with two DCFC songs on it: “Crooked Teeth” and “Marching Bands Of Manhattan.” I was instantly hooked by their liquid sound and lyrical complexities.

One could say I was pretty excited when I heard they were coming out with a new album a few months ago.

“Kintsugi” is a very fluid album.

The songs, although distinguishable, seem to be part of a more complex sound. It’s a great album to listen to as you lay back in some

nice grass connecting the stars with your eyes. The word kintsugi refers to the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with various precious metals.

The title is a reference to guitarist Chris Walla’s recent departure from the band and speaks to a theme of breaking apart and mending that’s present in most of the album. “No Room in Frame” and “Everything’s a Ceiling” are most notably references to frontman Ben Gibbard’s divorce from Zooey Deschanel and the ways in which his life mended afterwards.

This idea of breaking and mending back together, represented by the album’s title, can be felt through the music. There is a solemness in the tracks which, although not uncommon in past Death Cab songs, seems to take a front seat in this album. This comes through very vividly in “You’ve Haunted Me All My Life” and “El Dorado” which both seem to be sung to figures from the past. They express a sadness about things past yet an

acceptance of the present.

I would say that this album feels very “Death Cab-y,” meaning that it fits in very well with the rest of their discography. However that doesn’t mean they didn’t experiment a bit in this album. “Everything’s a Ceiling” has a 70s synth-pop overtone to it that is refreshing.

They play around with the synthesizer sound a little bit in other songs too like in the background of “Black Sun.” “Hold No Guns” seems to have an indie-folk influence that is definitely new for the band and meshes surprisingly well with their sound. “Black Sun” is probably the most “radio friendly” of their songs and is already seeing some decent airplay.

Overall “Kintsugi” is a strong addition to the Death Cab For Cutie line up. It has a lot of solid classic DCFC songs along with a few that try some new sounds with a lot of success.

Courtesy Atlantic Records

“Kintsugi” takes its name from the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with laquer mixed with precious metals, increasing the original value of something that was broken.

“What We Do in the Shadows” deftly executed sketch comedy It might not make any big statements, but “What We Do in the Shadows” gets enough little things right to be a tremendously entertaining comedy.

Conor Fellin Managing Editor “What We Do in the Shadows” is a hilarious mockumentary that follows a group of vampire flatmates as they deal with relationships, rivalries and, of course, finding humans to violently devour.

Like many of the best mockumentaries, “What We Do” has an easygoing pace that fits the day-today nature of the events it depicts.

Though there are a few overarching plotlines, the movie has a very episodic feel as it portrays the vampires out on the Wellington strip trying to pick out victims or back at home vacuuming the stairs by hovering midair beside the steps.

The acting staff is charming, especially in the case of Jemaine Clement and his fellow “Flight of the Conchords” alums. Taika Waititi plays up the sweetness of young vampire Vlago just enough to make him a sympathetic protagonist but not overbearingly so.

Meanwhile, Rhys Darby shines as a local werewolf that sounds a little more like a rehabilitation worker than a monster, finding a satisfying middle ground between

Courtesy Funny or Die

“What We Do in the Shadows” has a charming protagonist in Vlago, who, like his roommates, tends to put off cleaning up the caked-on gore that comes from repeatedly murdering humans and sucking their blood.

absurdity and dryness in his delivery.

In the end, it’s not the individual elements of “What We Do” that makes it good so much as the pitch-perfect delivery throughout.

In one of my favorite moments,

the vampires are chasing a victim through the labyrinthine corridors of their “flat.” A shaking camera follows the victim as he runs down hallway after hallway only to find the vampires around every corner.

It’s a very common scene, yet

the movie uses little details like the overly delighted poses the vampires strike as they turn a corner to firmly cross the line from action into slapstick. The result is satisfying, if not terribly clever.

If you are expecting a tightly

woven storyline and biting satire, you’ll be disappointed by “What We Do.” But then again, who could be unhappy with some good old sketch comedy when it’s this funny?

Variety

6 April 2015

The Collegian: 9

“It Follows” bends horror movie tropes to create a relatable film

“It Follows” is a 2014 horror film that plays off genre conventions and common anxieties for a very original product.

Nathan Gibbons Student Writer “It Follows” is a 2014 horror film that stars new ‘scream queen’ Maika Monroe as college student Jay. After she and her new boyfriend Hugh first have sex, he informs her of the unusual consequences of their romp and the fatal cycle to follow. This independent film is part horror and part metaphor, and treats both fairly evenly.

The film implements the typical elements of a horror film in intelligent ways. The 8-bit soundtrack channels themes of past classics while staying original enough to mount tension. Sex and nudity are frequent throughout, but aren’t meant to inspire excitement from the audience.

Most of the youth do have sex on the mind, but their thoughts feel much more real and consequential to all involved than they would in a lot of dead-teenager movies.

The movie also practices a healthy avoidance of hollow jump-scares.

Instead of trying to startle an unexpecting audience, the movie sometimes builds suspense to an unbearable amount.

The evil of the film is simple in nature yet instinctually frightening. After Jay has sex with Hugh, she wakes up tied to a wheelchair while he explains that he passed a curse to her, kind of like a paranormal STI. The curse will follow her around and change it’s appearance to match that of strangers or close friends. If the curse ever catches her, she’ll die and it will start pur-

Courtesy Animal Kingdom Films

After Jay is given the curse in “It Follows,” her friends rally around her to help her defeat it.

suing the previous person who had it.

Director David Robert Mitchell explains that it was a recurring nightmare he had as a child, and a fear a lot of us share. There isn’t a scene in which the evil can’t appear, and so the film carries a sense of dread throughout. Mitchell claims it’s the sense that “you can try to run away, but at some point it will overwhelm you. You have to sleep, you have to rest. These things are always there. And that’s terrible.”

It’s a timeless fear, which would

explain why Mitchell went out of his way to make sure set pieces didn’t easily display in what decade the movie takes place. The suburban setting could easily be from an 80’s slasher film, but a girl’s fictional phone along with more modern technology blurs the time. To make things more unsettling, the days seem to become grayer and grayer as paranoia grips the characters.

The characters are not each stereotypical, as we might expect from a horror or even a metahorror film, but act realistically

my biggest critiques. It falls under a category called movable feasts, which basically means that it has no fixed date. To figure out when Easter is going to be each year involves complex calculations involving the Lunar calendar and various other factors.

In fact, many different Christian sects disagree on when Easter is every year. This is a big red flag for me. I, personally, enjoy being able plan my holidays without having to pull out my TI-1000 gt xs Gaming edition.

Then there’s the mascot: the Easter bunny. At first glance nothing seems all that wrong, bunnies are super cute right? I mean the odd connection Easter makes between bunnies and eggs is weird, but forgivable. However most depictions of the Easter Bunny have them being human-sized or even bigger. A seven-foot rabbit with big, anime eyes? That’s terrifying.

Let’s get down to the real brass tacks. Easter is a candy-based holiday, not a food or present based

holiday, therefore its big competition is Halloween. It’s pros and cons time. Halloween you get to dress up like your favorite characters. Easter you have to wear your “church clothes.” Ugh, gross.

1–0 Halloween.

Halloween you go door to door around your neighborhood and people just GIVE you candy (unless you’re from St Louis and you have to tell jokes for candy). On Easter your parents HIDE candy from you and you have to LOOK for it.

WHYYY? 2–0 Halloween.

During Halloween you get to stay up real late, I’m talking like 10:30! But on Easter you get your candy like WAY sooner. So I guess that one’s a draw. Halloween wins 3–1.

Overall I’ll give Easter a 7/10.

It can be a little annoying sometimes, but hey pastel colours are

and consistently. During their introduction, the dialogue aims for realism at the risk of dullness.

However, the actors push their characters emotionally when the plot picks up the pace, and the realism of the characters pays off.

Maika Monroe plays a girl trapped in the center of a nightmare exceptionally well, denying the exhausted Jay a moment of relief.

Finally, with the sexual metaphor of the film comes pros and cons. The movie can be analyzed as an analogy for sexual anxiety, but deeper analysis can already be

made from the terror in the movie.

Whenever the evil appears, it is scary, but heavy-handed imagery could be argued to be closer to eliciting shock rather than screams.

As a horror movie this film could have benefitted greatly from a larger focus on its terrifying aspects at the cost of its sexuality.

Overall, “It Follows” is teeming with originality and subtle twists of a stereotypical genre. At a short runtime of an hour and a half, it’s worth seeing, especially for those with a sweet tooth for horror.

Holiday Review: Easter’s not as good as Halloween

In the spirit of fairness, the Collegian is skeptical of all holidays. Before we settle down to celebrate Easter, we decided we should know what we’re getting into.

Adam Lux Student Writer

Easter is officially celebrated in honor of the rising of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead three days after his death, as according to the Christian Bible. It was probably developed by early Christians as a replacement for the Jewish Feast of Passover.

The idea of Easter is kind of weird, especially if one doesn’t have much Christian background.

This dude, who lived thousands of years ago, was tortured to death and then apparently was resurrected. Understandably not as easy to be excited about this as one might be for, maybe, a baby being born.

The placing of Easter is one of

nice and jelly beans freaking rock.

Madeline Woods / Collegian

Writing Out Loud full of diverse, vivid student works The second installment of TU’s creative writing open mic, “Writing Out Loud,” proved to be a valuable experience for this reviewer.

Hannah Kloppenburg Apprentice Editor To my delight, TU’s creative writers once again delivered an impressive display of talent and heart at Writing Out Loud.

One of my favorite aspects of Writing Out Loud is the comfortable atmosphere. The event was held in the cozy confines of McFarlin Library’s faculty study.

It was lovely to sit back and relax in a cushy armchair, listen to some quality writing and watch through McFarlin’s antique windows as the setting sun sank into shades of pink and orange.

The event garnered what seemed to be a higher turnout but fewer performers than last semester’s version. The writers, professors and audience members who attended were 100 percent attentive and supportive of each performer. I would have felt very comfortable sharing my writing with them.

It was once again a treat to see what TU’s creative writers have to offer. Highlights of the evening ranged from short stories to slam poetry to song.

The event was set in motion by a slam poetry performance

by Tai Isarashi. The poem was an account of the intricacies of life composed entirely of song lyrics, which could have been a little cheesy but was actually rather well-arranged and very effective. The result was a compelling, moving and creative performance.

Also notable was a short story

by Dana Himrich entitled “The Mechanical Theatre,” a whimsical and seemingly steampunkinspired imagining of a futuristic theatre in which the performers are completely robotic. The story took us on an intricate first-person tour of the eccentric theatre.

gorgeous and delightfully grotesque.

Javier Aymand presented us with a number of gorgeous sonnets written in Spanish. He first read them out loud and then attempted to briefly summarize the mood and meaning to those who didn’t understand the language.

Her vividly descriptive writing painted scenes which were in turn haunting, gorgeous and delightfully grotesque.

I thoroughly enjoyed Lauren Kesterson’s surrealist short story “Belladonna,” the account of a deranged artist who is kept in a locked room and forced to produce art by a mysterious disembodied voice. Her vividly descriptive writing painted scenes which were in turn haunting,

I’ve been taking Spanish classes for a while and was fortunate to be able to understand his poems, my favorite of which was a sonnet that compared an unrequited love to a distant pair of stars.

This last example may be the most indicative of the purpose that’s at the heart of Writing Out

Loud—creative sharing. The ability to bring pieces of yourself to life with writing. The ability to present your thoughts, feelings, culture, art and experiences to others. The ability to share something with others that they may have never experienced or considered before.

I’d love to see Writing Out Loud get some more publicity and a higher turnout in the future, as it’s a really valuable opportunity for writers wishing to share their work with others or anyone who wants to see a quality performance from some talented individuals.

Writing Out Loud is a bi-yearly event, so keep an eye out for it next fall. I, for one, am looking forward to it.

Sports

The Collegian: 10

6 April 2015

Baseball is back.

Why should you watch it?

The 162-game marathon that is Major League Baseball will begin today. One sports editor muses about why baseball is not the “boring” sport that many think it is, fights the claim that popularity is declining and explains how it really is an international phenomenon.

Matt Rechtien Sports Editor I know that for a lot of people baseball is a sport that exists, but because it lacks “action” like football, basketball or hockey along with the fact that it goes from April to October, they don’t want to watch it.

Frankly I think that baseball is worth watching, but maybe for different reasons than most sports.

Lack of action doesn’t make the game dull Unlike football, basketball or hockey, baseball is not a sport that thrives on action.

There aren’t hard hits, incredible buzzerbeater shots or fights (usually), but that’s because baseball doesn’t rely on that kind of action. In fact it’s one of the only sports where the offense hardly ever has the ball, they’re just trying to hit it away from the defense, not take possession of the ball.

Baseball doesn’t need those kind of things to remain exciting. The length of the season and the nature of the sport allow a type of suspense and strategy that no other sport can offer. I have never met a person that wasn’t captivated by the thrill of a pitcher throwing a perfect game, or who didn’t feel disappointed when the 27th batter prevented perfection.

When a team that was behind ten games in the standings at one point, catches up and wins the playoff berth on the very last day of the season, that is a type of excitement that no other sport brings to the table.

Bear with me (I am a Cardinals fan after all), but the sixth game in the 2011 World Series epitomizes just how exciting it can be to watch baseball. Down to their very last strike the Cardinal David Freese hit one just out of Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz’s hand saving the Cardinals postseason life.

Later in the same game, after a Josh Hamilton home run, the Cardinals were down to their last strike, but this time Lance Berkman got a hit that once again saved their championship dreams. Finally, David Freese came up again and launched a towering fly

ball into the center field bleachers, winning the game for the Cardinals who used that momentum to win the World Series.

Moments like that are what make the game great. People in St. Louis speak of that game with a sense of reverence. That is what makes baseball a great sport to watch, the moments that go down in the history of the sport that can a whole region can get behind and will remember for decades.

National sport vs. regional sport One of the big issues that people point to with baseball—and one that we ran an article about last fall—is the decline of viewership, especially when compared to the NFL’s recent success. People point to that statistic and make the claim that the NFL is truly America’s game. The numbers seem to make the case for that claim, but the statistics can be misleading.

NFL games are more like events, rather than sporting competitions. Yes, the games themselves are sports, but the way that they are advertised is more made for T.V. specials.

Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football are made out to be big events that cater to a national spotlight.

In that way, the NFL is more of a national sport, people who don’t have a team to root for will still tune in to watch the game. This is most obviously seen with the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Sunday has almost become a national holiday at this point, with the food, the commercials and the parties. This is because it acts as an big event, and then adds a sports game into the day.

Baseball caters to a different group of people. Baseball is a much more regional sport. Where the NFL broadcasts all of their games on one of five networks, every single baseball team has their own broadcasting network for their region. This would explain why there’s this idea that baseball is

Can’t you just feel the excitement?

declining in T.V. ratings, everybody watches their own teams on their own regional sports network.

If you just look at the contracts alone, networks like Fox Sports or Root are shelling out a lot of cash to gain the rights to broadcast an entire team’s season of baseball. This is why the viewership decline claim is misleading, they use data from national games—like the All Star game or World Series—and claim that since those numbers are down, the whole sport is on the decline.

The problem with that is that baseball is a regional sport, people will watch their own teams in the big games, but if they have no horse in the race then, unlike football, they are less likely to watch the national games. The nearly 120-plus years of history for some teams builds a fanbase that will support their team, and prevent them from supporting any others. The storied history of the sport, and the fact that popularity of the sport is actually increasing, are just another reason why baseball is something you don’t want to miss out on.

Worldwide phenomenon Though it is considered to be America’s pastime, baseball is a sport that is played around the world—from Japan and Korea to the Dominican Republic, even to Holland and Spain. I wasn’t aware of just how far baseball had spread until I went to the World Baseball Classic in 2013. There were fans from Italy, the Dominican Republic, heck even Russian baseball fans were there without having a team to support. This proves that baseball is a truly an international sport, something that people from different countries and completely different cultures can share. That’s something that not every sport, or even non-sport can claim.

Courtesy Wiki Commons

Jesse Keipp is…

Koch rallies millionaires Wichita’s favorite sons, Charles and David Koch, aren’t afraid to shell out their billions. If you’re particularly observant, you’ll notice a classroom in Helmerich Hall bearing the Koch name. Most likely, after they die, ACAC, or ACSU, or the Union, will be named after them. Poor Allen will dwindle into the forgotten depths of donors past. Most recently, Charles Koch ponied up to keep men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall at Wichita State. With the possibility of an aggressive push from the University of Alabama, Koch rallied the troops (by troops, I mean millionaires) to raise Marshall’s salary from $1.85 to $3 million per year. So, hopefully, after new Tulsa football coach Philip Montgomery leads TU to its first-ever national championship, the Koch brothers will keep him around with an appropriate raise.

P.J. Williams arrested On Friday, former Florida State cornerback P.J. Williams was arrested by FSU’s campus police for driving under the influence of alcohol. Notably, this wasn’t Williams’s first date with Johnny Law. In a previous incident, Williams drifted across a median, caused a head-on collision, and fled the scene on foot. Tallahassee Police levied the hand of God on him … with two tickets.

Corresponding to Friday’s DUI, Williams had some trouble driving around campus before being pulled over by a campus police officer. Williams was drunk enough to not drive, but sober enough to realize he shouldn’t submit to sobriety tests or breathe into a Breathalyzer. According to the arrest report, “Williams stated that he played football for FSU and just wanted to go home.”

Unfortunately for the FSU starter, his name isn’t Jameis Winston and this wasn’t a rape case. Tallahassee PD and FSU’s police take DUIs seriously. Well, sometimes.

Harrison drops the f-bomb On Saturday night, to celebrate Easter, Jesus gifted the world with a Kentucky loss to Wisconsin in the Final Four. Indeed, “the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”

After the defeat, Kentucky players begrudgingly answered questions from the media.

Asked about Wisconsin player Frank Kaminski, Kentucky star Andrew Harrison mumbled, “Fuck that nigger,” in a most un-Christian manner. Unbeknownst to Harrison, the microphones picked up his choice words. Notably, Harrison, who’s black, directed the expression toward Kaminsky, who’s white. Most likely, the incident will blow over well before the NBA draft. I’m no Aesop, so I’m not really sure what the moral of the story is. But it discomforts me that such a hateful, albeit passionate, comment can so easily be dismissed and forgotten.

NBA MVP race heats up in final weeks The end of the NBA season is quickly approaching, and there are a couple of players trying to cement themselves as the true MVP. Mason Morgan Sports Writer With the NBA regular season coming to a close, it is still unclear who the most valuable player really is.

Some say it’s Stephen Curry, who is leading the Golden State Warriors to the top seed in a very tough Western Conference.

Curry, one of the most entertaining and effective players this century, uses pure skill and not strength or athleticism to dominate every game.

Other groups have recently said Russell Westbrook. The Thunder’s point guard has kept the team afloat despite a ridiculous amount of injuries to the team’s best players, including himself. Westbrook is

nearly averaging a triple-double in 2015 and really has to do it everything himself just to keep his team in the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

And then there are others who believe Houston’s James Harden is the most valuable. Harden epitomizes the current trend in the NBA that only revolves around driving to the basket, shooting free throws and popping three pointers. He’s doing it at an incredible rate, all while keeping the Rockets in a good position for the playoffs without their center Dwight Howard.

It seems that every week, one of them will have a great stretch and take over the top spot. These three are definitely the frontrunners but it’s hard to leave out Anthony Davis and Lebron James, who are also having incredible seasons.

This race reminds me a lot of the 1994 Oscars for Best Picture. It was a threeway running between Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, and The Shawshank Redemption.

These are all great movies, but Forrest Gump ended up winning the award.

It has long been debated that Forrest Gump did not have the lasting effect that the other two movies had. Pulp Fiction was the launching point for Quentin Tarantino and Shawshank Redemption is now regarded as one of the best movies of all time.

So if Harden’s the Forrest Gump of the NBA, a great season now would not age well compared to the other two. Westbrook’s season, where he would nearly average a triple-double, could be looked upon as an all-time season, but he’s just not playing for a very good team right now.

I think Curry has to be the MVP right now. His career is just starting to take off and Golden State is just too good because of his leadership for anyone else to win the award.

As long as Curry follows the career arc of Quentin Tarantino and not M. Night Shyamalan, it could just be the first of many MVP awards.

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Courtesy SFGATE

Kentucky player Andrew Harrison unsuccessfully tried to cover up his misstep with his hand. He now knows to leave the cover-ups to the Tallahassee Police Department.

CBS’s LaForce turns down proposal Before Michigan State faced off against Duke in the Final Four on Saturday, an anonymous MSU fan proposed to CBS’s Allie LaForce while she was on air. Shockingly, LaForce, who’s already married, said no. Having seen several jumbotron proposals, it was my understanding that the rules of engagement required women to say yes to public proposals. Oh well, anonymous MSU fan. It can’t hurt to try, right?

editor-in-chief—Kyle Walker managing editor—Conor Fellin news editor—Morgan Krueger sports editor—Matt Rechtien variety editor—Abigail LaBounty commentary & barricade editor—Giselle Willis satire editor—Fraser Kastner photo & graphics editor—Elias Brinkman copy editor—Amanda Hagedorn apprentice editor—Michaela Flonard business & advertising manager—Jesse Keipp distribution manager—Walker Womack editorial consultant—Nikki Hager web manager—Sam Chott social media manager—Charlie McQuigg

Sports

6 April 2015

Golf The men’s golf team took first place in the UALR/First Tee Invitational on the strength of Matt Mabrey, who was the individual champion of the tournament. The Golden Hurricane beat out the Memphis Tigers by one point in their first place finish out of a pool of 16 teams. Joined Mabrey in the top-five finishers was Tulsa senior Colton Staggs who shot just two strokes behind Mabrey. Their next tournament is in Kannapolis, NC this upcoming weekend.

Rowing The women’s rowing team swept the University of Creighton in all five races on Saturday morning, including the Varsity 4+, Lightweight 4+, Freshman/Novice 4+ and Varsity 8+. After the sweep over the Bluejays, head coach Kevin Harris had this to say about the event: “I was really pleased with the way the women executed today. We put the race plan together, went after it, made the rating right and I am proud of the way we raced today.” The rowing team will next see action this upcoming weekend as they head to West Windsor, NJ to compete in the Knecht Cup. Tennis Or Ram-Harel was named the American Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for the third time this season, mostly for his role in the win over the University of Central Florida, in which Ram-Harel won the final match of the day to put Tulsa up 4–3. The men dropped their final two regular season matches against the No. 1 Oklahoma

Sooners and the No. 54 Tulane Green Wave. The Golden Hurricane honored Alejandro Espejo before their final match for senior day. The men have a 12 day break before hosting the American Athletic Conference Championships from April 16–19. The women lost their final home game of the season against the University of Houston on Friday night.

After falling behind 0–3 early, the women were able to tie it at 3 apiece, but fell just short as the Cougars won the final point. The women will travel to Kansas and Wichita State to conclude the regular season next week, before the conference tournament.

Softball The women’s softball team split its four games this week, going 2–2 against Arkansas and UCF. The Golden Hurricane blew past Arkansas on Tuesday, beating them 10–2 in only six innings of play. They hosted the 16th ranked Knights from Central Florida this past weekend. On Friday the two teams competed in a doubleheader that lasted a total of 23 innings and over seven hours. The Knights took the first game 2–1 in 16 innings, and the Hurricane took the second game 5–4. Compared to Friday’s games, Saturday’s finale was quick, with the Knights winning the series on a 3–0 win over the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa now sits with a 23–14 overall record and a 5–4 record in conference play. They next play at Wichita State on Tuesday, before traveling to East Carolina to take in the Pirates in a three game series on Saturday and Sunday.

Track and Field Marc Scott and Tim Rackers made Tulsa history during the 10,000 meter run at the Nike Stanford Track and Field Invitational on Friday. Scott set a program record with a time of 28:12.91, while Rackers ran the third fastest time in program history with a time of 28:52.57. Scott finished fourth in his heat, while Rackers finished second in his. The Golden Hurricane will next compete in the John McDonnell invitational in Fayetteville.

The Collegian : 11

After 30 years, Tulsa’s soccer team returns

ONEOK field is now home to a new professional soccer team, the Roughnecks, whose name pays homage to the team that played in Tulsa from 1978–1984.

Joey Byron Sports Writer

The Roughnecks have been on a hiatus of about thirty years, but are now bringing professional soccer back to Tulsa …

Thirty years have gone by since the Roughnecks last played a game in Tulsa.

The team is back with a surprising amount of fan support. Another big component of their comeback was their ownership group, the Tulsa Drillers, who allowed them to use their stadium.

The Roughnecks coming back is another sign that soccer (or football for those who live anywhere besides the U.S.) is growing in popularity in America.

The sport has an incredible global following, but domestically

has not been able to gain the same popularity.

The times seem to be a-changing as the game gains momentum.

I was a little unsure of what the fan presence would be like when I attended last Saturday’s game against the Austin Aztex.

The cheapest tickets were $8 which seemed reasonable compared to, say, the Oilers, whose cheapest ticket are $15.

Once I walked in I was pleasantly surprised to see a somewhat crowded (at least more than I expected) stadium with fans who were actually involved with the game.

Blowing horns could be heard and there was a slight chill in the air, but it was still comfortable for an April evening.

Chants could be heard throughout the game and there seemed to be a wilder section for those trying to let the Roughnecks know who they represent.

The marketing department for the Roughnecks has done a great job of trying to make the setting electric and fun.

The striking orange of their jerseys fits well with the trend that the Oilers have started for the city of Tulsa.

The Roughnecks fell 0–2 to the Aztex on Saturday, but the experience was still very fun.

They are still getting used to the field and their teammates.

They will eventually find their groove which will bring a winning atmosphere to an already entertaining experience.

Go Roughnecks!

Courtesy Wiki Commons

After a thirty-year break, the Roughnecks are returning to Tulsa.

‘Cane Calendar April 6 – 12 Tuesday, April 6 Softball @ Wichita State; Wichita, KS; 5 p.m.

Wednesday, April 8 Women’s Tennis @ Kansas; Lawrence, KS; TBA Saturday, April 11 Softball @ East Carolina; Greenville, NC; 12 p.m.

Softball @ East Carolina; Greenville, NC; 2 p.m.

Women’s Soccer vs. Central Oklahoma; Oral Roberts (Tulsa); 3 p.m.

Men’s Soccer vs. Missouri State;

Hurricane Stadium; 6 p.m.

Women’s Soccer @ Oral Roberts; Tulsa, OK; 6 p.m.

Track @ John McDonnell Invitational; Fayetteville, AR; All Day Women’s Golf @ SMU Dallas Athletic Club Invitational; Dallas, TX; All Day Men’s Golf @ Irish Creek Collegiate; Kannapolis, NC; All Day Women’s Tennis @ Wichita State; Wichita, KS; TBA Women’s Rowing @ Knecht Cup; West Windsor, NJ; All Day

Sunday, April 12 Softball @ East Carolina; Greenville, NC; 11 a.m.

Track @ John McDonnell Invitational; Fayetteville, AR; All Day Women’s Golf @ SMU Dallas Athletic Club Invitational; Dallas, TX; All Day Men’s Golf @ Irish Creek Collegiate; Kannapolis, NC; All Day Women’s Rowing @ Knecht Cup; West Windsor, NJ; All Day

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Commentary

The Collegian: 12

6 April 2015

Indiana’s RFRA safeguards freedom, not anti-LGBT discrimination

The reaction against Indiana has been way overblown. There is no reason to “fix” its RFRA. Brennen VanderVeen Politics Reporter Recently Indiana passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), resulting in a huge backlash. Opponents criticize it for allegedly being a license to discriminate and an assault on LGBT rights. Most of their criticisms ignore the actual facts of the law, and their goal of laws controlling businesses and customers would result in a less free, not freer, society.

First of all, the Indiana RFRA does not directly address LGBT issues at all. It’s very similar in language to the RFRA enacted in 1993 under President Clinton and those of other states. All these bills do is allow a religious person to invoke their religion in challenging government policy.

Specifically, these laws mean that in order for the government to enforce a policy against a religious person, it must show that the policy does not “substantially burden” that person’s religion unless the policy 1) furthers “a compelling government interest” and 2) is “the least restrictive means” of doing so. Such laws do not define who wins the lawsuit; it just means that the government has to show that it has a very good reason for the policy in question.

These sorts of laws have been used in a wide variety of cases. The federal law was brought about with almost unanimous support after the Supreme Court ruled that Native Americans who had been fired for the

religious use of peyote were not entitled to unemployment benefits. The most prominent use of the federal law of late is the Hobby Lobby case.

Less controversially, the federal law has recently been used to require that the federal government return the eagle feathers it had taken from a Native American man during a religious ceremony even though he was not a member of a federally recognized tribe.

A federal version specifically for prisoners has been used to ensure that a Muslim prisoner could grow a half-inch beard and that an Orthodox Jewish prisoner could receive kosher meals.

However, the court held that the federal RFRA could not be applied to the states, so many states passed their own versions that mirrored the federal version. The Texas version was used to ensure that a young Native American boy would not have to have his hair cut in accordance with a strict school

absent. This is why courts cannot enforce private restrictive covenants that discriminate on the basis of race. To do so would violate the Fourteenth Amendment.

Could the Indiana version be used to allow businesses to turn away homosexual customers? First, a couple of clarifications.

Despite this bill being portrayed as allowing businesses to deny service to LGBT customers, virtually every case of a business refusing service (in any state) has been for a same-sex wedding specifically. Some conservative Christians see catering or photographing a same-sex wedding as taking part in something that their religion prohibits.

Reports of businesses turning away LGBT individuals are rare to nonexistent.

Secondly, denying service on the basis of sexual orientation was already legal in most of Indiana. Since “everything which is not forbidden is allowed,” and Indiana as a whole had not mandated equal service, dis-

A business in an area that doesn’t have an actual ban on discrimination can discriminate regardless of the fix and whether or not Indiana’s RFRA exists at all. district policy against boys having long hair.

Opponents of Indiana’s law say that it is different from other legislation in two main ways. Neither of these cases turn the Indiana law into a discriminatory law.

First, they take issue with the Indiana law including for-profit corporations as persons.

This is not cause for concern. Under federal law, unless otherwise stated, the word “person” includes corporations. The federal RFRA made no exception for corporations. Also, in the Hobby Lobby case, the Supreme Court stated that the federal RFRA applies to at least some corporations.

Secondly, opponents dislike that the Indiana law applies to private lawsuits, not just government action. This view neglects that all lawsuits are undertaken under the laws of the state and through the courts. Even in private lawsuits, government action is not

I think that I shall never see a thing as lovely as thou, Tree

crimination was legal in most of the state.

This is the case in many states, including Oklahoma. Yet, opponents of Indiana’s RFRA did not protest until after the law was passed.

This is why the Indiana Democrats didn’t think the “fix” went far enough and refused to vote for it. The fix, announced by Indiana Governor Pence on Thursday, states that RFRA can’t be used to justify discrimination, ensuring that the cities that have banned discrimination can continue to do so.

However, it doesn’t actually ban discrimination. A business in an area that doesn’t have an actual ban on discrimination can discriminate regardless of the fix and whether or not Indiana’s RFRA exists at all.

As to whether or not Indiana’s RFRA could be used to discriminate where dis-

crimination is illegal, the answer is maybe.

A judge would have to rule that serving for a same-sex wedding substantially burdens someone’s religious beliefs and either does not further a compelling government interest or is not the least restrictive means of pursuing that interest. Also, it’s worth noting that in the 21 years RFRAs have existed, none have ever been used to justify discrimination.

The Indiana law does not guarantee that religious business owners could discriminate against same-sex weddings. However, allowing the business owners to do so would be the best thing for a free society.

Opponents of the law, with their boycotts against the state as a whole, speak as though the state allowing private discrimination is the same as endorsing that discrimination.

Does the First Amendment mean that the government endorses hateful language? Of course not, and the standard is the same with discrimination.

Opponents of the law may be rightfully indignant about discrimination, but they should consider the nature of laws. All laws must be enforced through lawsuits, fines or imprisonment. Is punishing small businesses who won’t take part in a wedding the hallmark of a free and just society?

Freedom, being the absence of government coercion, means that businesses are free to turn away paying customers (generally not a good business strategy) and that individuals can refuse to support businesses whose practices they find abhorrent. Besides, why would anyone want someone at their wedding who doesn’t believe that the marriage should take place at all? It’s not as though every town only has one bakery or one photographer.

In the long run, businesses who turn away services will be less competitive and may ultimately go out of business. A free society allows for freedom of contract, allowing for same-sex couples to join together in civil partnership and for businesses to perform services for whom they choose.

In this emotional missive, Kyle writes to a lost love he thought would never leaf.

Tree, Thou wast but one of my loves—but never the meanest. I passed thee every day on my way to class and every day I thought while I looked on thee, “How selfless that tree is! Look how it holds its branches out above the heads of the passers by and is not offended that they take no notice.”

I noticed, Tree. When I left my meetings in Chapman, strolling out the front doors, I always caught sight of thee. At all seasons thou wast there, a solid fact on which to depend in the tumultuous chaos of an undergraduate education, a companion. We would exchange nods—No, I never said anything, but I loved thee.

And now, thou art disappeared.

When I walk the lonely road past Chapman, all the younger trees think they can compete for my affections. They think they can spruce themselves up and win me over.

Those shallow, cloned saplings all in a row!

I could never feel for them as I felt for thee, Tree!

Sometimes I pass the spot we used to make eyes at one another. I remember how you always inspired me to branch out. I would sit on a bench, gently shrouded by your shade, perhaps I read a book or took my fill in admiring thine shapely form, but in all things I was at peace, so long as you were there.

Now, at the same spot there is only a blank patch of dirt where the brick path once gave way to a mighty tree.

I admit that anger has taken root in my heart: What son of a birch took thee away?

He’s really aspen for trouble. They never should’ve taken you down.

But I do my best not to be overcome. I have to move on. As the semester winds down and I move on to other things I am always, without doubt, Pining for yew, Kyle Walker Editor-in-Chief Elias Brinkman / Collegian

An artistic rendering of what the tree in front of Chapman used to look like: majestic, tall and still alive.

TEDx vs. TED: There are only so many ideas worth officially sharing

TEDx talks can get a bad rap because they don’t go through as vigorous a vetting process as TED talks, but that’s no reason to discount them.

Sam Beckmann Student Writer

Giving a TED talk seems to be the height of popular intellectualism. Presenters with the most interesting, creative and thoughtprovoking ideas gather together in order

to share those ideas with the world. TEDx, however, has a quite different reputation.

“You gave a TED talk?” is often followed by “Oh, it was just a TEDx.” In some respects, it’s true. TEDx traditionally has a much lower entry level than TED, making it harder to compare the two. However, TEDx is not necessarily worthless as a result, instead providing a unique stage to better further TED’s mission.

The poor reputation, in part, comes from the public image of TED talks. I’ve often heard “How Schools Kill Creativity” by Sir Ken Robinson referred to as the quintessential TED talk. And it’s hard not to love it, especially from the perspective of a student stuck in the current endurance-test world of education. TED’s international representation attracts the most intriguing speakers from around the world, who are carefully vetted to produce the highest quality content at every TED event.

In contrast, the process to give a TEDx

talk is significantly simpler, with a far greater number of events, smaller audiences and more overall opportunities to speak. This is especially true at a small venue such as the University of Tulsa. This often leads to the assumption that TEDx talks are inherently less interesting, creative and overall of less quality than actual TED talks.

This assumption, however, greatly misconstrues the mission of TEDx. TED’s goal is not to produce the highest quality of content but rather to be a “community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.” TED talks are inherently limited: The organization can only put on so many a year, rarely generating more than a few hundred talks. This is where TEDx comes in.

By allowing others who are passionate about sharing ideas to organize their own events under the TED banner, more talks can be presented than ever before. Sure, not every TEDx talk will be as impressive as Sir Ken Robinson’s, but some of them

will. And, with the power of the internet, the wonderful ideas can be spread across continents. The third most popular TED talk of all time, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” by Simon Sinek, is a TEDx talk.

This “accuracy by volume” approach is not the only benefit of TEDx however. It can also provide a platform for talks not in the traditional TED realm of possibility. For example, Look at Tom Thum’s “Orchestra in my Mouth,” where he recreates several songs acapella through beatboxing. It’s not something I could see on the traditional TED stage, but TEDx lets him take the stage and leave his audience with something to think about.

So, when TEDxUTulsa happens in a couple weeks, I encourage you to attend. It might not have Sir Ken Robinson, but I suspect that you will learn something over the course of those four hours.

6 April 2015

The Collegian : 13

IMPROVE TU

Improve TU

The Collegian : 14

6 April 2015

Improve TU: Rock the Damn Boat!

We here at the Collegian want the best for the University of Tulsa. We think we can use our unique platform within the university to put out a few ideas for making TU better. So we reached out to a number of student leaders asking them how they would improve TU. The next five pages contain their responses.

But this newspaper can’t solve anything by itself. If TU is truly to become a better place, we need students to make a habit of prominently and vocally demanding the best of their school …

When we were approaching campus leaders to write for “Improve TU,” we encountered a lot of reluctance among students and faculty. There were plenty of people with great ideas for making TU a better place. And a number of people agreed to write about them.

But many were hesitant to put those ideas in writing and publish them in the Collegian.

In conversation with a few of them, it came out that their hesitation boiled down to something pretty simple. Some feared that criticizing the school or their department would come back to bite them. We can only speculate as to what made these people fearful to share their ideas in public.

Others didn’t want to be seen rocking the boat.

Which is just too bad, since TU would be a better place if its students, staff and faculty were more willing to voice their criticism.

Changing things is difficult, but recent events

have shown that it’s necessary. When a student suing the university says her report of sexual assault was unfairly treated, when another student was suspended without a hearing for speech that wasn’t his, and when your administration puts pressure on its student journalists not to do their job, you know you’ve got a problem.

But problems can be solved. We remember a time when TU didn’t have a non-discrimination statement that applied to its students. Now, thanks to agitation on the part of student groups, it does.

Things change when people make noise. They don’t change when people are reluctant to express their opinions. Things change when people who care about TU organize and make their concerns known. They don’t change when the predominant platforms for criticism are TU Confessions and Yik-Yak. So stop complaining to your best friend and start

making your opinions heard on a wide scale. Write a letter to the editor. Send a formal complaint to Steadman Upham.

There’s power in numbers; arrange meetings between your student groups and administrators to express shared concerns. Or get out on the New U with a bunch of protest signs and let the TU community know how you feel.

Just rock the damn boat.

Nikki Hager Editorial Consultant Conor Fellin Managing Editor Kyle Walker Editor-in-Chief

Diversity

TU should implement domestic minority outreach programs

While TU has a large number of international students, it could improve its diversity among domestic students by implementing new outreach programs.

Tendai Dandajena University Ambassadors Treasurer

The University of Tulsa is wonderfully diverse. You can walk to class and on the way there see students from Thailand all the way to Turkey. TU does not have any trouble recruiting students from abroad.

Rather, recruiting minority students from the United States is a different manner.

More than 50 percent of the students that attend TU are white, while about a quarter of the student population is from abroad, leaving less than 25 percent of the student population from various domestic minority backgrounds. TU would be a better place if there were more domestic minority students.

This is only possible through reaching out to prospective minority students and showing them that attending the University

of Tulsa is a possibility for them too. And not only a possibility, but also a wonderful opportunity.

Having clubs like LINC-Leaders Incorporated, which pairs up existing freshman from minority backgrounds with upperclassmen who are also from minority backgrounds, allows those incoming students to feel more comfortable in the University of Tulsa community and to become better integrated as well. Other clubs like the Association of Black Collegians also allow for a safe environment for African American students to convene.

TU can improve upon this by hosting events like Junior Visit Day and Tulsa Time specifically for students that come

from ethnic communities that are not highly represented at the university. Having minority outreach programs will allow for a greater amount of minority students to visit and witness the university and subsequently apply. Having a diverse community benefits overall student interaction as well as their cultural growth.

Minority outreach is simply another growing point for TU that will allow the university and the TU community to continue its progression and development.

Although the University of Tulsa is already wonderfully diverse, local minority outreach programs are just another way to increase that rich diversity.

Integrate ’Cane Connections with incoming freshmen enrollment

TU already has a great resource available to increase interaction between international and domestic students. It’s called ’Cane Connections, and if it became a part of student enrollment, it could motivate otherwise apathetic students and help desegregate campus.

Giselle Willis Cuauhtle President of the Cultural Exchange Coalition

I remember being a senior in high school and getting all of these glossy pamphlets featuring green campuses and smiling white teeth. The smiles belonged to people who were ethnically diverse but still hung out together in dorm rooms adorned with university logos.

I would think that any college-age student can remember at least one token black kid and guy in a wheelchair on everything from educational programming for children to bad sitcoms. They were there to teach us that diversity is supposed to be a good thing.

Meanwhile, over a quarter of TU’s students are from other countries. According to U.S. News, this is a rare feat; Tulsa had the third highest number of enrolled international students in the nation for the 2013–2014 academic year, with international students making up over 26 percent of the student body.

Instead of just displaying diversity by pushing international students into PR photo

shoots, TU should further embrace and advertise its status as an international hub in the midwestern United States by encouraging incoming freshmen to view attendance at TU as a special opportunity to interact with people from all over the world.

Opportunities for interaction are already everywhere: in classes, in ACAC, in residence halls and in the cafeteria. One opportunity is a program called ‘Cane Connections, meant for students who are interested in getting to know someone from a different country. The idea is that domestic and international students will sign up looking for a friend, resource or language partner, and then the program will pair people accordingly. This program provides a different setting for communication because people meet one-on-one, not in an indirect setting like orientation.

The university has already sent out emails promoting ‘Cane Connections to students enrolled in language courses. However,

this opportunity should be extended to all students, especially new students. Existing students have signed up for ‘Cane Connections, but not enough to desegregate campus. This is not because students are bigoted or lazy; it’s because they’re apathetic—too safe in their comfort zones.

When incoming freshmen confirm attendance at TU, or when they sign up for housing, they should be prompted: “Would you like to sign up for ‘Cane Connections?”

Under the question, there would be a brief description of the program, a link to more information, and “Yes” and “No” options.

If the student hits yes, he or she is directed to the ‘Cane Connections online registration form.

Incoming students would then already be integrating on a deeper level than most students on campus. To end segregation on campus, making options like ‘Cane Connections as easily accessible as possible is a necessity.

Improve TU

6 April 2015

The Collegian : 15

TU Has a Long Way to Go on Disability Awareness but the Iowa Democrat was going to make waves early on in a celebrated Senate career that would end a quartercentury later.

Dole and Harkin didn’t know it then, but their work in bringing the two parties together to pass this monumental bill would leave them heralded by many forever. On a much less glorious level, my near two-year tenure in the Student Senate was marked by multiple strides and improvements for students, faculty members, visitors, parents and others with disabilities who might grace our campus.

The SA Senate and the individuals who fill it lived up to my expectations and beyond. It was because of Student

Although TU provides some academic help to students with disabilities, physical accommodations are lacking. Students, faculty and administrators need to get educated on the kind of culture that will best include those with disabilities.

port and resolution, a fellow Senator asked me to talk about how TU “ranks” on the disability-friendly spectrum. I explained that TU does a nice job of providing academic accommodations, but the physical accessibility of our campus leaves much to be desired.

This is a common theme among private universities, since public universities receive federal dollars to continually renovate along with more money for programming. As peer campuses begin to renovate buildings, their physical accessibility has and will continue to outdo TU until changes are made.

But this column is about Improving TU and shouldn’t simply be filled with my gripes. So, some calls to action:

TU does a nice job of providing academic accommodations, but the physical accessibility of our campus leaves much to be desired.

Rob Egan Founder and President, American Collegiate Society for Adapted Athletics Before you read any further, you should know a bit about me. My name is Rob; I’m a sophomore here at TU. I am a past member of many campus organizations and am currently focused on my non-profit activities outside of classes.

I have cerebral palsy, a physical disability that limits my mobility. I’ve been a disability rights advocate my whole life—and this community should know why our campus is a great place to join the disability rights fight.

When I used to sit in the SA Senate Chambers every Tuesday night, I had visions of Bob Dole and Tom Harkin working to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—people with different perspectives working together for the greater good.

When the ADA was passed in 1990, Dole was the Republican Senate Minority Leader from Kansas, a well-respected statesman and brilliant legal mind.

Harkin was only a freshman Senator,

Association that we had wheelchair basketball programming here, because of Student Association that we had a “Day in the Life of A Person with A Disability” Luncheon, and because of Student Association that life for people with disabilities is even tolerable on this campus.

I wish I believed that our administration was as passionate about making TU a disability-friendly place as its students are. I don’t believe that. I never have.

I introduced a piece of legislation called “A Few Words on Accessibility” earlier this semester when I was still in the Senate. By the time you read this article, the resolution, approved by the Senate, will have swept across the desks of numerous TU administrators, along with the five-page Accessibility Report, which highlights a plethora of accessibility issues on our campus. And it doesn’t cover everything.

When the Senate considered my re-

Fellow Students: Please learn about the issues surrounding disability rights.

Gain perspective if you don’t have it already, and please don’t shy away from a good fight on behalf of the disability rights movement.

Know how to identify accessibility issues and how to report them. Test yourself to learn when to offer help—some of us don’t have the ability to ask, and some of us are too proud to do so. Include us. Make us a part of your Friday night plans, and treat us as you would anyone else. If you don’t notice the disability, it’s likely we won’t either—nor will anyone else.

Faculty and Administrators: Please forgive my long list of suggestions here.

And please heed these suggestions as best you can—it will help more people than you realize.

First, enact the suggestions in “A Few Words on Accessibility.” If you don’t know what they are, let me know.

I’ll pass it along and make you part of the solution. Next, fix as many of the problems identified in my Accessibility Report as possible.

With July 26 being the 25th Anniversary of the hallmark Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, now would be a great time to launch a disability-centered fundraising effort, and it would be a great show of commitment to a different kind of diversity from the TU Community. Also, please work with CSAS to increase its budget for disability services and improve its Testing Center. I know money is tight, but the fine folks over there do a lot with very little.

And I’m not done yet—this is a big one. Don’t “out” anyone’s disability. I realize some are obvious, like mine, but you all are given privileged information when it comes to accommodations letters. Please don’t announce the need for a notetaker in class or post it on Harvey.

Find a more private way to approach a student about helping out a classmate with notes.

And please, know how to identify accessibility issues and how to report them. If you don’t, perhaps disability awareness training should be launched.

All Together Now: Volunteer at The CENTER for Individuals with Physical Challenges. It will change your perspective. To learn more, visit http://www.tulsacenter.org or head on down to 815 S. Utica Ave. Then, when you return to TU, do something on campus for disability awareness. Remind the city that differences among us exist, and celebrate the uniqueness of everyone’s abilities.

I hope these steps will produce some fruitful results for everyone. If you have any questions or you need some help working things through, call me, email me, or find me on my scooter—I’m a bit hard to miss.

Tulsa, 1921 Major in African-American Studies would cover Tulsa’s racial history

African American Studies courses should be offered at TU in order to acknowledge the importance of racial history in America and particularly in the city of Tulsa.

Gracie Weiderhaft President of the Society for Gender Equality

Today, the Greenwood district of downtown Tulsa resembles nothing of its former self. Many Tulsans would be surprised to learn that when they go to see a Drillers game or stop by Fat Guy’s for a burger, they are actually in an area once known as “the Black Wall Street.” In the early 20th century, Greenwood was home to many thriving businesses run by black Tulsans. AfricanAmerican doctors, lawyers, businesspeople and other professionals, several of whom were multi-millionaires, lived and worked in the region.

In the spring of 1921, Greenwood was burned to the ground by a white mob in response to an accusation that a black shoe shiner assaulted a young white woman in an elevator. Although the number of deaths is unknown, it has been estimated that as many as 300 Greenwood residents lost their lives, while thousands more were left injured or

without homes. This event is commonly known as the “Tulsa Race Riot,” though it could be more accurately described as a massacre. Many TU students know nothing about this tragic event, even though it occurred a mere three miles from campus. It is surprising that a university located at the heart of a city with such a powerful racial history offers no program in African-American Studies.

TU remains a predominantly white institution in a diverse city. Though there is no shortage of international diversity, there are surprisingly few domestic students and faculty members of color on campus. It seems like TU is not making much of an effort to change this.

Though it likely would not shift TU’s demographics too dramatically, the addition of an African-American studies program would show that the university values

black narratives and experiences. It would give students the opportunity to study and discuss the U.S.’s (particularly Tulsa’s) important racial history and its modern implications.

Block classes in African-American literature, music, film and art would provide students with a more diverse range of perspectives and counternarratives. Not only could such a program potentially attract more students of color, but it could also expose white and international students to unfamiliar histories and new ways of thinking.

In the wake of the SAE scandal, all academic institutions in Oklahoma should be striving to promote more open dialogue and understanding about race. Adding courses in African-American studies would be an excellent way for TU to do just that.

TU should offer a scholarship to students from historic Greenwood

Although TU may not have played a direct role in the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, it ought to put some of its resources toward making up for that tragedy.

Kyle Walker Editor-in-Chief of the Collegian

Nothing will ever make up for the burning of 1,256 homes on May 31–June 1, 1921. Nothing will ever make up for the lives lost in the Tulsa Race Riot. But the University of Tulsa has the considerable resources at its disposal to make a small change for the better.

TU ought to inaugurate a new line of scholarships specifically dedicated to bringing students from in and around historic Greenwood to TU for free.

Though more than 90 years have passed, Greenwood has yet to recover from the destruction wrought upon it by the guns and torches of its white neighbors, the land grab which immediately followed the massacre, and the historical whitewashing which kept its name out of public discussion.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median income in zip code 74106, which contains most of historic Greenwood, was $20,246 in 2013. Unemployment was at

animus that finally destroyed Greenwood.

The scholarship should not necessarily be limited to members of underrepresented groups; it should be limited to applicants

Greenwood has yet to recover from the destruction wrought upon it by the guns and torches of its white neighbors.

16.2 percent. Tulsa County had a median income of $48,181 and unemployment of 7.2 percent.

As the geographical heir to Greenwood, 74106 is the logical place to draw from for this scholarship, but funding should also be available to students from other distressed parts of Tulsa insofar as these areas contended with the same kinds of racial

who might otherwise be unable to attend TU. By bringing these young people to study at TU, and by providing them with the opportunity to earn a degree and graduate without debt, TU would be stepping up in its role as a community leader and setting an excellent example for Tulsa.

Improve TU

Academics

The Collegian: 16

6 April 2015

Get rid of weed out courses, focus on teaching

Intentionally difficult “weed out courses” cause more harm than good by encouraging students to drop out rather than learn and improve.

Abigail LaBounty President of the Association of Computing Machinery Weed out courses have long been a staple of science and technology degrees. Weed out courses are supposed to be very difficult to encourage students who don’t have a natural talent for a certain major or aren’t passionate enough to drop out and switch majors be-

fore they get to upper level classes.

They’re used by professors to separate the students they believe have a natural ability for the subject matter from the students that professors feel won’t make it regardless. They’ve been used to keep upper level science classes smaller and to ensure that only the students with real passion stick with their major.

Most of us have heard of professors who cite their low passing rates as a sign of success. In high school, I had two chemistry teachers who would compete to fail the most students out of their introductory courses. There are two problems with this mindset of trying to fail as many students as possible.

Introductory-level courses should be used to teach students the basics of their field, not discourage them from it. Students who are most affected by this discouragement are mostly minority students who haven’t had the same educational opportunities and encouragement as their peers.

In a 2007 study at the Univer-

sity of Oklahoma and a separate 1999 study at Iowa State University on women and racial minorities in STEM fields, researchers found two things. Women and in particular women of color are more likely to feel that their peers have been better prepared for weed out courses and that it makes the competition unfair to them.

The problem is present at TU. Andreas Botero, a Colombian Computer Science Major who completed his first two years at Tulsa Community College, said that he felt that his introductory level courses “were more about proving who knew the most and how well you could already do it than about … taking the time to learn.” He believes that “this is a problem, because it discourages students from reaching their potential and creates doubts in them.”

SeYeon Kim is a Sophomore Mechanical Engineering Major with a Computer Science minor.

She feels that “weed out courses are important to separate people who are serious about the topic they’re learning, but it can be a re-

ally negative experience because it lowers your self-esteem and makes you second guess yourself.” She says she encounters more difficulties as a commuter and points out that it “can be a lot harder to meet with professors outside of class to get help.”

When Mika Nash, an academic dean and associate professor in the Division of Continuing Professional Studies at Champlain College, changed one of the schools introductory Computer Science classes to “stop thinking about the course as an exercise in the process of elimination and instead … one that would open up a new world to an interested student.”

The program dropout rate fell to just 8 percent, the lowest for any program in the college.

And therein lies the solution.

Weed out courses should, instead of being difficult for the sake of difficulty, provide an overview of the material that will provide students with the knowledge they need to succeed in upper level courses.

Instead of actively encourag-

ing struggling students to change majors, professors should do their best to encourage students to succeed and help them find the resources they need to do so.

Carnegie Mellon University recently tailored their introductory Computer Science classes to a better image of what the field is and be supportive of minority students.

One way they did this was to reduce the difficulty of weed out courses, but the reforms went much further than that. They actively encouraged students to try new things, even if they had no experience in them and supported students who were struggling.

This year their Computer Science undergraduate classes are 40 percent women.

Professors should focus their introductory classes on the material with equal opportunities to students who haven’t seen the material before and encourage students to learn and improve instead of encouraging them to drop out.

Arts and Sciences Fair for undeclared majors would majors deserve respect help students find a path to success

Students who choose to pursue liberal arts degrees based on their skills and interests deserve respect for their work.

Sarah Hartley Communications Major I think we need to change how we treat each other. I don’t always feel respected by students outside of my college who somehow think they’re better than CAS students.

I’ve never been the kind of person

we love and love what we do? Salary level doesn’t equal happiness or even success. Plus there are great jobs and great salaries in every career field.

If we could just get rid of the judgmental thoughts and have mutual respect for all colleges on campus, we would create a better learning environment and campus community. The College of Arts and Sciences is not the underdog because guess what? This isn’t a contest.

Liberal arts degrees allow us more flexibility to set our own career path, while business, engineering and health science degrees are more closely linked to specific jobs. Is this uncertainty a bad thing? Absolutely not. To me, it’s the most wonderful thing about higher education.

There are students who want to learn more than job skills. They care about something enough, like

If we could have mutal respect for all colleges on campus, we would create a better learning environment and campus community. who takes on a victim mentality— I chose to be a Communication major because it matches my personal and academic strengths.

The College of Arts and Sciences could use a little more love though. Primary examples include the current state of our outdated facilities, the lackluster A&S career fair and the negative perceptions of our college.

It often feels like students outside of our college think we don’t work hard, we won’t get jobs when we graduate and if we do, they won’t pay well.

Aren’t we supposed to do what

politics or anthropology, to dedicate four years to it, even though they don’t know where it will take them after graduation. It’s typically not about the money for these students either. It’s about a deepseated interest and determination to give back.

We need to respect the academic diversity on our campus. Students value different things and therefore study different things. Let’s celebrate this instead of comparing our entry-level salaries, because all students at the University of Tulsa, despite their major and future plans, deserve respect.

A major fair for undeclared majors would help students make constructive choices about their academic futures.

Hannah Kloppenburg Apprentice Editor One of the things I love about TU is that, despite being an acclaimed university, there’s not an excessive amount of pressure for new students to declare a major.

The absence of that pressure saved me from having to make some difficult decisions as an overstressed and anxious high school senior well before I was ready to do so.

That being said, being an undeclared major sometimes feels like being thrust into the world of higher education without guidance or a purpose.

What I’ve found as an undeclared student, and from talking to other undeclared students, is that we’re often unsure where to start despite having an awareness of our own interests. There’s only so many out-of-context aptitude tests one can take and lists of majors one can peruse before they all start blending together in a blur of insubstantial, inapplicable advice.

Yes, I already know I have an aptitude for English and social sciences and that I like working with people or in the outdoors or whatever results the countless online quizzes churn out at me. Probably could have told you that ahead of time. Doesn’t particularly steer me

towards any conclusive life decisions.

What undeclared majors need are resources at their own school, in the context of their university’s resources and connections, that can help steer them towards the major that is best for them. This is why I suggest that TU host a program or major fair to start undeclared students on their way to success.

An excellent example of this sort of program in action is Ohio University’s annual Majors Fair.

The fair is not only the one time a year the university’s hundreds of major, minor and certificate

courses and faculty, and subsequently to make better decisions for themselves and for their future studies.

Additionally, I’ve noticed that many universities have advising programs specifically directed toward undecided students. Virginia Commonwealth University’s Discovery Program, for example, features individual and group counseling, workshops and advising sessions.

That’s not to say that TU doesn’t already have a fair amount of services available—the Center for Student Academic Success, the Arts and Sciences AS-1001

What undeclared majors need are resources at their own school that can help steer them towards the major that is best for them. programs are represented in one place, but also an opportunity for students to learn about internships, study abroad programs and similar opportunities.

Similarly, Washington University in St. Louis hosts a major fair which is directed specifically at sophomores. I particularly liked this one because it benefits students who need to declare a major before the sophomore year deadline as well as students who might be thinking about changing their major around sophomore or junior year.

A major fair would allow TU students to explore majors that may not have caught their eye on an impersonal digital list of degree programs. They could talk to faculty and current students in each program to learn more about them from a firsthand perspective.

It would allow students to get an idea of what the major programs are like at their own university, in the context of its unique resources,

classes and the current faculty and major-based advisers are all very adept and qualified to provide students with academic guidance.

I might, however, suggest a supplementary program to the currently available advising resources.

I’m specifically intrigued by the idea of group workshops for undeclared students. One of the most helpful things for me during my first semester as an undeclared major was to discuss my options with people who had a lot of the same doubts and concerns as I did—other undeclared students.

I’d love to see programs at TU help students make well-informed and thoughtful choices during what can be a confusing and stressful time in their lives. A major fair or program for undeclared students would be an ideal opportunity for the university to begin doing so.

Dual majors should have fewer blocks—not more Students with multiple majors should have fewer block requirements to avoid unnecessary repetition and excessive workloads.

Nathaniel Beckemeyer Student Writer

I am a student in both the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences. So let’s talk about block classes.

The college of engineering does not (typically) require Block IIIs,

as the engineering sciences are permeated with these types of classes.

However, the college of Arts & Sciences does require them.

So, if a student is enrolled in both colleges, the obvious thing to do would be to require no Block III classes—a multidisciplinary student shouldn’t be required to take more block classes.

However, I’m required to take Block IIIs because I’m also in Arts & Sciences.

Additionally, there is a Block II class (on ethics) that is required for computer science.

Despite not being required for my psychology major, I currently cannot count it as a Block II class for psychology because it counts towards my other major.

That doesn’t make sense.

The purpose of block classes are, to my knowledge, to increase the well-roundedness of students.

So, if I’m enrolled in two colleges, I shouldn’t have to take

more block classes than if I were enrolled in only one college— it defeats the purpose of block classes to require fewer of them if I were only studying a single subject.

In conclusion, the university shouldn’t require students to take more block classes as an indirect consequence of having multiple majors.

I think that it would improve TU to make block classes per student, not per major.

6 April 2015

Improve TU

Student Association Hold student leaders accountable

TU’s Student Association would be better if students held elected leaders accountable for change.

Michael Mancini Student Association President For the past year I have served as your Student Association President, which has been an incredible privilege. Thanks for voting for me if you did. I’ve done my best to be a good steward of your student activity fees and to advocate for the student body’s interests to administration and the Board of Trustees. But if I hadn’t, would you have known how to stop me?

If SA failed to act, you need to ask for an explanation.

No need to panic: the SA officers I have had the pleasure of working with over the past four years have worked in good faith to improve student life at TU. Still, there are a lot of ways to make sure that your student leaders are held accountable for their actions. If you see something on campus that can be improved or know of

an issue affecting students, you should certainly contact one of your SA executives or a senator who represents your constituency.

You can also swing by the executive officers’ weekly office hours upstairs in the Student Union to sit down with someone and present a problem.

But simply notifying SA of your issue and leaving it to us to handle it won’t solve anything. You need to follow up a few weeks later to see whether or not SA took action on your suggestion.

If SA failed to act, you need to ask for an explanation.

Sometimes the status quo can’t change quickly for reasons beyond SA’s control, but if your student leaders have simply become lazy or complacent then you have the right to demand better.

Should your SA officers prove incapable of representing you well, you can always encourage another candidate to run against them or even seek office yourself. We’d be happy to have you aboard if you’re committed to making TU a better place.

If an action or inaction is so inappropriate as to warrant someone’s removal from office prior to the expiration of his or her term, you can call for a recall election with a petition signed by 5 percent of the student body.

I championed that amendment to the SA constitution in last year’s executive election, and while I hope you don’t need it I’m glad to have made it available.

As you choose my successor and the rest of next year’s SA executive committee in the election this Wednesday and Thursday, make sure to vote for the candidates who will best represent your interests in SA and with TU administration. But even more importantly, never let them forget that they are here to serve you.

A safe space for victims of assault

A designated space on campus for victims of assault would keep TU students safer.

Jim Scholl Member of the Advocacy Alliance and University of Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Adversity and Injustice The University of Tulsa is in a unique position to lead the nation in sexual violence prevention efforts. Recent media events have drawn a great deal of attention to the alarmingly high rates of sexual violence on university campuses and send a clear message that there is a need for comprehensive programmatic efforts to address this issue.

In response, many universities are clamoring to make up for lost time. Fortunately, thanks to students, faculty and staff who volunteer their time to address this problem, TU is already making efforts comparable to larger and better-staffed institutions. As such TU has the opportunity to lead the way nationally in campus violence prevention by becoming a trauma-informed community, with training, education and initiatives for and from everyone from trustees to students.

We need a place on campus where survivors of violence can go to get resources, learn about legal options and receive early intervention services to stem the long-term negative consequences of violence. If TU is truly committed to protecting their students from sexual violence, they will install full-time individuals housed at a centralized location dedicated solely to addressing this issue. This centralized location would not only allow for much-needed resources to be disseminated to the campus and send a clear message that sexual violence is not tolerated

and survivors are supported, but also serve as a workplace dedicated to comprehensive prevention efforts—all of which are needed to combat sexual violence on this campus.

TU should also find new ways to combat harassment and discrimination.

Multiple news outlets have declared transgender rights as the next civil rights movement. Unfortunately, TU is behind in more ways than one in their efforts to provide gender equality for all students. While policies protecting these individuals may be in place, their practice is questionable. Recent research has demonstrated almost 70 percent of gender non-conforming/gender queer individuals may experience physical and/or verbal discrimination and harassment in restrooms. The consequences for the individuals are often severe, whether it is excessive absences from school or the workplace, or various physical complications (i.e. kidney and urinary tract infections) due to their efforts to avoid the bathroom. The implications of this research demand a reconsideration of gender segregation on campus.

TU has the opportunity to lead the way nationally in campus violence prevention.

If TU is a school truly committed to ending violence, harassment and discrimination, their policy must be put into practice.

One of the most basics steps we can take in this direction would be offering desegregated bathrooms on campus, providing a safe space for cisgender and transgender individuals alike. Ultimately we need to provide all members of the LGBT community equal access to basic dignity and fair treatment, which includes using a restroom in which they feel most comfortable. In order to accomplish this we need to begin changing the physical structures on our campus which provide reinforcement for gender binarism and structure for discrimination.

The Collegian: 17

Credit rating system would improve SA funding

A credit rating system for SA funding would allow organizations to use funds effectively and prevent out-ofpocket spending.

Nathaniel Beckemeyer Student Writer I recommend a credit rating system for Student Association funding.

Student Association event funding currently works something like this: Your organization tells SA that 22 people will show up, and you spend $7 * 22 people = $154 on food. You request from SA to give your organization that funding. 17 people show up.

By the $7 per person rule, SA grants only $119 for food. That means that $35 come out of the organization’s pocket.

However, if an organization consistently spends its money on exactly the right amount of food, then falls a little short one day, that organization is subject to the same penalty.

That is to say, a consistently responsible club is not formally rewarded or trusted. It is merely up to the financing body to determine how much funding the organization deserves.

Fortunately, SA’s Government Operations Committee (GOC) recently passed a bill allowing brackets to be implemented;

however, these brackets can be too small or too large. If made too large, it increases the possibility of embezzlement. If made too small, it can restrict larger events in the funding they receive.

To alleviate these problems, I recommend a credit rating system be implemented for organizations that request funding. The credit system should incorporate payment history, length of history, size of events (which could be verified with random SA event head counts) and other variables as necessary.

That way, Student Association can more readily decide whether to trust organizations with money, whether an organization is attempting to embezzle funds and how well an organization spends its money.

A credit score system could improve the trust and respect between SA and other organizations.

One potential way that a credit rating system could factor in is by increasing the size of the brackets for projections. Of course, if the number of attendees for the event falls far towards one of the ends of those brackets, that will adversely affect your organizations credit score—but not your funding: Full funding will be granted if the number of attendees falls inside of that range.

I believe that a well-implemented credit score system could provide an excellent way to improve the trust and respect between Student Association and other organizations, penalize/discourage organizations that do not spend responsibly, and reward organizations that do spend responsibly.

TU should add brick pavers to 7th street

Adding a system of brick pavers and street lamps to 7th street would beautify a heavily traversed area of TU’s campus and make it safer.

Brett Baumgartner Candidate for SA President Most of the University of Tulsa campus is connected by a system of brick pavers.

However, the southeast part of campus along E. 7th Street does not have any pavers and I think that area could really use it.

This section of TU is heavily traversed by residents of LaFortune House, 7th Street House, Fraternity Row and people walking to Oliphant Hall, Zink Hall, the Mabee Gym, the Physical Plant and the Shuttle Lot. The addition of pavers, or brick sidewalks, would increase the aesthetics and safety of that area as well as make it appear more united with the rest of campus.

In comparison, the area of TU along sorority row got a facelift through the addition of brick pavers and a post lighting system last summer. Before, that area seemed pretty dark and cut off from the rest of campus.

Now, it looks a lot nicer due to the fact that the brick pavers have been installed.

The only problem with those is that people have said that they are too close to the sorority houses.

That is why I think that the new pavers should be added on the south side of E. 7th St. so that they are directly in front of Lafortune House, the Mabee Gym and the Physical Plant and on the other side of the street from Oliphant, Zink and the

fraternities.

Let’s say that someone is wanting to walk to Bayless Plaza from LaFortune House.

Currently, they would have to cross S. Gary Avenue and S. Florence Avenue along either narrow sidewalks or grass. It would make these two intersections safer if these pavers could be inlaid into the street at these two intersections to make it more obvious that there is a crosswalk there.

Another safety concern is that this area is dark at night because it is not well lit. Adding the same post lighting that is normally used along the pavers would go a long way to brighten this area up.

As a result, Fraternity Row, Lafortune House and 7th Street House will be better linked with the rest of campus because of these pavers and have an added bonus of being brighter and safer.

To completely lay out my plan of where these pavers would be, I’ve mapped out the route between S. Gary Place and S. Tucker Drive.

The pavers would have their eastern terminus at the southwest corner of E. 7th Street and S. Gary Place and extend along the south curb of E. 7th Street, reaching the southeast corner of E. 7th Street and S. Gary Avenue. At that point, there would be a brick crosswalk at this intersection that extends westbound towards E. Florence Ave. These pavers would pass Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Pi Kappa Alpha and Zink Hall at a distance and pass directly in front of the Mabee Gym. At the intersection of E. 7th Street and Florence Avenue, there would be another brick crosswalk and it would continue extending westbound towards S. Tucker Drive/Bayless Plaza. These pavers would pass directly in front of the Physical Plant and would pass Oliphant Hall at a distance.

At the northwest corner of the Physical Plant, the new pavers would intersect with existing pavers at the East curb of Tucker Drive, just before Bayless Plaza. The pavers would continue North at the point until they meet with the current pavers that end at a corner southeast of Sharp Chapel.

Campus

Improve TU

Student Engagement

The Collegian: 18

6 April 2015

Political disengagement in Okla. breaks government

Oklahomans are among the most politically disengaged in the country, and this leads to ineffective governing. Students need more opportunities to get involved in politics.

Nikki Hager Midwest Regional Director of Common Sense Action and co-founder of its TU chapter Oklahoma has been getting a lot of negative attention for its lack of civic engagement. Last week, Washington Post col-

umnist Niraj Chokshi wrote that our state ranks at the bottom of a number of indicators including voter turnout and how often Oklahomans discuss politics. When these measures are combined, Chokshi states Oklahoma ranks higher than any other state in political disengagement.

This political disengagement is also reflected on our campus; there is a striking lack of political organizations. There is no College Democrats, College Republicans, debate team, or Oklahoma Collegiate Legislature (similar to student congress, but specific to Oklahoma). In fact, the only active political organization is Common Sense Action, a bipartisan millennial advocacy organization I founded at TU last fall.

Civic engagement is a core principle of democracy. A government by the people, for the people requires political discourse, community deliberation and an expression to our elected officials of what we expect from them. It only takes around 3 constituents calling a legislator to really get a legislator’s

attention.

A robust civic culture also leads to more effective and efficient governing. The more voices that are expressed, the greater our diversity, deliberation and compromise.

Without groups to serve as platforms for political discussion and community discourse, TU students lack opportunities to develop a political identity. Such platforms

there is definitely something to be said about strength in numbers. Student political groups can organize and fight for good governance, whether that’s for a change in tax policy or against a ban on A.P. U.S. history.

When too few people or groups are involved in the political process, small, committed groups can mobilize their members, often resulting in an overrepresentation of

When too few people or groups are involved in the political process, it results in an overrepresentation of extremists or single issues in law making. allow for an exchange of ideas, often causing students to call into question long held beliefs, or causing them to think about certain issues in a new light.

Further, our representatives, whether in Washington, Oklahoma City, or Tulsa City Hall, respond to constituent needs. And

extremists or single issues in law making.

If we want the government to reflect the will of the people, the government has to know what our will is. I am calling upon TU students to revitalize some political groups and boost our civic engagement.

Improved student-staff communication is the key to TU’s success

Students should treat TU staff with respect, and staff should recognize that their responses to student concerns are not always obvious.

Jordan Heroux Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology I have been a proud active member of the University of Tulsa community for nearly nine years. It has been a privilege to see the campus physically and academically grow.

With continued progress, however, new problems often arise. As I carefully examine where I think we can improve, I think the answer (though not necessarily the solution) is simple: communication.

When talking with members of the TU community, it is increasingly apparent that the more our campus excels, the less clear communication between staff and students

becomes. Much of this is unavoidable; however, it is my opinion that not all of the gaps in communication are due to TU getting bigger.

Student-staff communication has been observably tense and variable at best subsequent to circumstances and interactions surrounding a recent student-staff harassment case. But these communication gaps are definitely not novel. I cannot count how many times I have been told by fellow students how frustrated they are that their tuition dollars go toward TU landscaping (which is actually not true). I also hear students regularly complain that their concerns about campus parking, even when formally addressed in student government settings, are reportedly ignored by administrators. I have had several conversations with TU staff members that reflect concern or frustration with student groups who disregard campus policies and disciplinary regulations, such as fraternities violating social probation. Additionally, I often observe students regularly ignoring (or even being rude to) TU service staff.

Unclear communication and/or reluctance to share information pertaining to campus operations, financial allotments, parking permits and lots, student conduct policies/ procedures and even day-to-day frustrations of students and staff could one day grow to halt TU’s amazing progress. Students and staff both have a responsibility to admit their contribution to the problem, as well as

Students should be able to donate leftover dining dollars to charity

Since some students receive so many dining dollars per semester, they should be given the option at the end of the year to donate them to local non-profits.

Mackenzie Smith Candidate for SA Treasurer Every August, students have the opportunity of attending the annual Activities Fair, in which a variety of campus organizations and clubs come out to promote their groups to hundreds of students. As a new student, this is one of the best ways to immediately get involved on campus, and it is something that students remember throughout the years.

So what if the University of Tulsa and Student Association in particular hosted a Charity Fair in May as one last push to encourage all students, staff and faculty to donate money before the summer break began? Just think about the incredible impact that this could have on our community and the positive image that it could bring TU within the Tulsa area. Even further, what if the money donated by students didn’t come out of their pockets, and instead was money that would slip through their fingers at the

end of the year if it weren’t spent?

At the end of each year, Presidential Scholarship students, as well as those who have purchased meal plans with dining dollars, are forced to purchase all of the left over junk food at the C-Store, every remaining Subway gift card in the store and every juice-making and pasta cooking utensil at the McFarlin Coffee Shop in order to ensure that their money is not left to the university.

The amount of money awarded to Presidential scholars varies depending on their year, with non-meal plan students receiving roughly $2300 per semester in dining dollars. For me, a non-Presidential scholar, my jaw drops at this vast amount of money readily available at their fingertips and the thought of this money just being returned to the university.

This is where I see change possible on our campus. This is our chance, as a university, to make a difference in our community and to impact the 3,869 non-profit organizations in Tulsa County, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Charity Fair would be an event hosted on campus in which local nonprofit organizations and charities would be brought in, and students would be given the chance to donate their remaining dining dollars to whichever organization they choose.

The money wouldn’t be coming out of students’ pockets, and we would be giving back incredible amounts of money to the Tulsa community and doing our part in paying it forward. In doing so we would not only improve TU and our outreach efforts but also give back to the surrounding community from which we draw such overwhelming support. What better way to elevate TU than to also lift up those around us?

work together toward addressing it.

I would like to suggest a few adjustments to how students and staff communicate that I believe could make a world of difference for the TU community. TU staff, let me first say that I greatly appreciate all the work you do day to day. Students and alumni do not show you the support and thanks you deserve.

However, a large number of students I have spoken with feel as if their perspective and concerns are discounted or ignored when they come to you. Regardless of whether or not this is true, it may be beneficial to keep this in mind when students approach you.

Fellow students, I can empathize with how frustrating it is to have emails and phone calls to campus offices repeatedly ignored and our agendas left unacknowledged. However, taking our agitation out on any and all campus staff is equally problematic. We need to commit to no longer attributing our #firstworldproblems to single individuals (e.g., Stead, Mona, Stephanie)

and acknowledge that we have it very good most of the time. We owe it to TU staff who serve us daily to speak to them respectfully (or even acknowledge them in a friendly way). This includes administrators, shuttle drivers, dining staff, bursar’s office workers and faculty.

When I was a prospective student visiting TU, Princeton Review ranked us as one of the top ten happiest campus communities in the nation. Within two years, we were no longer listed. While correlation does not prove causation, I am unsure it is a coincidence that potential communication limitations between students and staff have been reportedly on the rise. Regardless of whether or not respectful and thoughtful interactions help us raise our national stats, more importantly, prioritizing communication at TU will better allow us to be a supportive community that lives up to our mutually shared goals of wisdom, faith and service.

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6 April 2015

Improve TU

The Collegian: 19

6 April 2015

The State-Run Media

the

State-Run media Afflicting the afflicted. Comforting the comfortable.

Improve the State-Run Media (like that’s even possible) Readers: In the interest of promoting democratic participation in the State-Run Media, we’ve decided to invite constructive criticism.

Below are some responses.

I’d really appreciate it.

Dear SRM: You arrested my Uncle three weeks ago after his son posted dissenting posters in the town square. We understand that torturing him to find all the rebels is essential, but we’d really love it if you wouldn’t kill him.

Dear SRM: Could you increase my alcohol allowance each week?

Two bottles of vodka isn’t enough to deal with your bullshi...at this point the letter cut off. The writer was found dead over his desk.

Dear SRM: In your inscrutable wisdom you have decided to remove all of the streetlights in my neighborhood. Now, I know it’s your policy not to spend taxpayer money on taxpayers, but crime has risen significantly and the jails are already overflowing.

Could you maybe invest in some infrastructure so that we don’t live in a nightmarish every-manfor-himself hellscape?

Dear SRM: You recently moved all the bugs in my home, and now I’m not sure in which direction I shout to turn myself in for something. If you could please send us an updated list of bug locations,

Dear SRM: I can’t find my left shoe. You know the one I mean, the purple converse with a hand drawn unicorn on the front? Could you guys help me look for it?

Dear SRM: While I was driving my car the other day I ran over a pothole so big it voided the warranty on my hip replacement.

Would it be possible to fill it in? I mean, surely you could get one of those secret policemen you have tailing me to put some sand in it.

Dear SRM: The microchip you implanted in my brain is causing me to hear voices. The voices almost always give unreliable financial advice and directions to bad restaurants. Did you intend to do this, and are you in cahoots with the dragon that lives under my refrigerator?

Dear SRM: Tomorrow morning

I am scheduled to be executed.

My only request is this. I desire to die peacefully, and the SRM has botched every single execution it has ever conducted. So, instead of the usual drug cocktail injection, can you arrange for me to die in a less brutal way? Like by firing squad or immolation?

Dear SRM: Last week I realized that unless my personality changes significantly, I am very unlikely to fulfill any of the plans I had laid out for myself as a child. Can you help me find something to blame aside from myself for this unfortunate situation?

Dear SRM: I’ve begun having some disturbing, ‘free-thinking’ type thoughts. I can only conclude that the brain chemicals you put in the water supply are running low. Just for your information.

Dear SRM: A week ago my dog ran away. After a few days, a cat showed up on my front step panting, running in circles, and just generally playing like a dog.

I have reached the conclusion that my dog’s brain has been put in this cat. Are you running any state-sponsored mad science pro-

grams? If so can you fix my dog (cat?)?

Dear SRM: Recently we’ve been having to work 20 hour days instead of 16. I’m not questioning the work of our government leaders, but is there any way we could get a third water break after hour 16? I’ve been fainting five times a day instead of the recommended three recently.

Dear SRM: The trackers you put in my children have been malfunctioning lately. I haven’t seen them in three days, and I’m not really sure where they went. I’m not all that worried, but I thought you should know in case you’d want to track them down.

Dear SRM: THE CITY MANAGER IS A LIAR! HE TOLD ME THAT THE NEW OBSTACLE COURSE BETWEEN WORK AND HOME WOULD BE FILLED WITH ACID AND POISON STAKES, BUT IT’S FILLED WITH LAVA AND RAINING PITCH! DO NOT TRUST THE CITY MANAGER!!!!!!!

Dear SRM: I was recently hired

as a janitor in one of the many government buildings in our city.

When I arrived on my first day I found that the building I had been assigned was completely empty. There was no electricity, no plumbing, not even any insulation. It was just a bunch of guys in janitor’s uniforms standing around. Also, I haven’t been paid yet, so could you do something about that?

Dear SRM: The other day I was walking my dog and I noticed that the surveillance camera on 3rd Street was broken and dangling by its cord. Is this some kind of test? Do I get a reward for doing what I should and telling you?

Dear SRM: In a bizarre case of mistaken identity, I seem to have been confused for another person with the same name. I would like to remind anyone reading this that I am the Brad Smith who works at an insurance company and enjoys gardening. The Brad Smith who takes part in subversive activities lives on 21st Street.

Editor’s Note: All complaints and complainers have been dealt with appropriately.

Starbucks launches “Racists Together” After the failed “Race Together” campaign, Starbucks has decided to make its customers even more uncomfortable.

Fraser Kastner Hates the Irish

Elias Brinkman / Collegian

A discarded Starbucks cup betraying the prejudices of the customer. This reporter’s cup read “Distrustful of Catholic immigrants.”

After the poorly conceived and recently defunct “Race Together” project, Starbucks has decided to roll out a new ad campaign, this time focussing on confronting our most deeply held biases and prejudices.

The new campaign, “Racists Together,” calls for customers to reveal their most uncomfortable, secret cultural biases in order to “start a dialogue about the darkest parts of our social landscape.”

“We’ve really just decided to go balls out with the awkwardness,” said Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. “I think that the reason ‘Race Together’ failed was because it wasn’t uncomfortable enough. I’m looking to really get into the dark parts of people’s minds.”

Starting on Monday and lasting until they inevitably realize their mistake, the program will require customers to earn their coffee by confronting the deep-seated prejudices that lurk in their minds.

After discussing their prejudices with their barista, the customer’s hangup will be written on their cup instead of their name.

This will help somehow.

The campaign is projected to go roughly—to the surprise of no one.

Next week: TU raises tuition yet again

President Upham, enjoying the fruits of his labors. Not pictured: company housing, expense-free travel and six-figure salary.

Elias Brinkman / Collegian