Feb. 10, 2021

Page 1

THE CAMPUS

February 10, 2021 – Volume 114 Issue 7

Dining Services previews potential new meal options to replace Chick-fil-A

Lifestyles

Francesca Iacovacci

NEWS EDITOR

Submitted Jay Williams, OCU alumnus, has been accepted into the Master of Divinity program Boston University. (Page 2)

News

Sou�ce: okcu.edu The 2021 Neustadt Lectures will feature Dr. Alvin H. Rosenfeld to discuss antisemitism in a series of webinars. (Page 3)

Opinion

Columnist Troy Freeman celebrates Valentine’s Day by reviewing the classic rom -com, “Runaway Bride.” (Page 4)

Arts & Entertainment

OCU Dining Services is hosting themed weeks for new meal option possibilities. Dining Services is conducting tasting events this semester for new options to replace the Chick-fil-A on campus. The new venue, once it’s chosen, is planned to be installed over summer and will open by the fall 2021 semester. Casey Kreger, director of housing and residence life, said the process started a year ago, but due to the pandemic, Dining Services was unable to change the venue over summer as planned. Since then, he said he’s been working with Student Government Association and a small group of students that represent different student populations to gather feedback on students’ needs. Kreger said he’s looked at the restaurants students enjoy in Oklahoma City and considered what Chartwells, OCU’s dining provider, can do to build a custom option to meet individual needs. “I think OCU and our students are very unique, and we’re not like any other schools. Our students have very different needs, from our athletes, to our performing arts students, to any student that’s on campus. So, we gathered information, and we took that and made new concepts,” Kreger said. The first of two potential concepts is called “Bowl Life” and was featured from Jan. 25-29 in the Caf in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center. Kreger said Bowl Life functions similarly to a Chipotle or Qdoba and offers dietary-friendly and healthy options, along with Asian and barbecue options. He said it comes in a single container and can be customized for each individual. The second concept is called “Melt” and will be featured Feb. 9-12. “It’s something similar to what Alvin’s used to have on campus back in the day that predated Chick-fil-A,

Mackenzie Shaw Student Publications

Above: An empty line at Chick-fil-A in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center during lunch on Jan 29. Left: Students and faculty line up to try a new bowl at the Bowl Life testing station in the Caf of Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center during lunch on Jan. 29.

and also has a McAllister’s/Panera-type feel,” Kreger said. After trying the new concepts, students and faculty will be able to take a short survey by scanning a QR code or by using tablets provided to give feedback about the food. Jacob Harrel, religious education/ English junior, said he thinks the new concepts fit with the style of the campus community. “It reminds me of what Alvin’s used to be like before I was here, from what I’ve heard from alumni, that there was a salad bar and soup and it was more like a bodega than it is now,” he said. “So, I think it would be nostalgic for some of the alumni as well as good for the people who are currently on campus.” Harrel also said he thinks it’s a good idea for the university to replace Chick-fil-A.

“Chick-fil-A is delicious, and I love them, of course, but it’s not a very healthy option. And Chickfil-A is a company that I don’t like to support financially, specifically for political reasons, even though I will cheat every once in a while and eat there,” he said. “I think at their core, the university does not line up with the core values of Chick-fil-A. And our campus itself is very health-conscious when you think about how many dancers we have. I myself am not a dancer or an actor, but I try to be health-conscious when it comes to my meals.” Emma Krajicek, music theater junior, also said it’s a good idea to replace Chick-fil-A. “The connections Chick-fil-A has, their association to homophobic things and stuff like that, and on a diverse campus like this, it seems

like a weird thing to have as our only quick options other than Alvin’s. So, if we want something hot, we have to go to Chick-fil-A. I think replacing Chick-fil-A might give us a better range of options in that we might have something healthier hopefully,” she said. Kreger said he’s optimistic students will like the new concepts. “If feedback comes back from students and they do not like either one, that is totally acceptable, and we’ll go back to the drawing table,” he said. “But based on past feedback and student feedback we’re getting now, we think, so far, that both of these will be a hit of the options we have available to us through our dining service provider.”

OCU starts monthly COVID-19 surveillance testing Francesca Iacovacci

NEWS EDITOR

Dr. Erik Heine, professor of music and assistant professor of the honors program, is taking a sabbatical to write a novel on the “How to Train Your Dragon” trilogy of films. (Page 5)

Sports

Cou�tesy o� OCUspo�ts.com

OCU rower Ruthie Lacy, nursing freshman, breaks her second world record. (Page 6)

M MEDIAOCU.com

The OCU Communications Office recently announced mandatory monthly COVID-19 screening for on-campus residents. The university announced on Jan. 29 residential students will now complete monthly COVID19 surveillance testing through the Campus Clinic in February, March and April. Joey Croslin, Title IX coordinator and member of the Emergency Operations Center, said testing is an additional mitigation measure the EOC felt necessary to take. “We felt it was in our best interest for the health and safety of the campus community to layer in additional testing strategies to our existing mitigation strategies to prevent the spread of the virus on campus, especially in our high-risk areas like our residential area and athletics,” she said. Croslin said students will take a rapid COVID-19 test for monthly screenings instead of the Polymerase Chain Reaction test the campus clinic usually uses. “It’s less reliable. Although the reliability is high, it’s less reliable than the PCR test which is what we do for entry testing for residen-

tial students,” she said. “If we get positives, we’ll confirm those with a PCR test.” Croslin said residential students are divided into cohorts alphabetically by last name. Residential students with last names beginning with letters A-D test the first week of every month, E-L the second week, M-R the third week and S-Z the fourth week. Though the monthly surveillance testing is currently only for residential students, Croslin said it will soon be available for any students who want to voluntarily be screened. “A student who is not symptomatic or exposed can get a screening monthly if they want to,” Croslin said. Casey Kreger, director of housing and residence life and member of the EOC, said the monthly screenings will make campus safer and allow the campus community to be more aware of their environment. “Just because our bubble on campus has been doing well in this period, since school started in August, the community obviously is very variable on the fluctuation of COVID cases and hospital levels,” he said. “With that, we wanted to enhance safety

on campus in this pandemic, both within the residential halls and other activities on campus.” Eyoel Abera, music performance sophomore, said testing more often will help control the spread on campus. “I guess it’s an ideal thing because the severity has gone up,” he said. “I have friends at large universities who get tested regularly, and it happened during last semester as well. It’s something that’s designed to help our safety, so I’m assuming it will help prevent the spread of the virus.” Laura Sue, psychology/acting sophomore, said monthly testing is a necessary process that should have been implemented last semester. “It will empower us to be better protected by providing our community with accurate information,” she said. “Yes, it will likely raise the alert level, and might even send us home if things are worse than they appear, but having had several close family members contract the virus, suffer through it and even die, I’d rather be taking online classes from home for a few weeks knowing that I’m safe than stay on a campus that could compromise my health.” Sue said she has been uncomfortable at times from a lack of

social distancing. “I, personally, do not feel safe living on campus,” Sue said. “Classes and extra-curricular activities have been doing a mostly good job enforcing proper mask wearing, but even so, classrooms are over-crowded, and many students are definitely not six feet apart in lectures. Students spending their free time in the Caf, lounges and dorm common areas display an atrocious disregard for COVID safety protocols.” Croslin also said she’s seen less compliance with safety protocols. “For this semester, I think we’re all getting fatigued by all the extra steps we have to take to remain safe, and at the same time, we’re getting excited of the prospect of vaccines and our lives getting back to normal in the foreseeable future,” she said. “So, I think there has been a little bit of a lack of following our basic safety protocol, which is wearing a properly fitted mask, keeping your distance and limiting your social gatherings, washing your hands and those sort of things. That’s what we need to do, and overall, of course, our campus community is doing a great job.”

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Feb. 10, 2021 by MediaOCU - Issuu