Feb. 2-8, 2021

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OU students bring the mullet back to campus

OU’s independent student voice since before the 1918 pandemic

How Big 12 counties stack up Collegiate health experts, local leaders break down key concerns, mitigation strategies ahead of vaccine rollout, stress shared governance

BIG 12 COVID-19 CASES

JORDAN MILLER @jordanrmillerr

Per 100,000 people in each county. WVU not recorded due to proximity. Updated 1/28.

Source: Population data via U.S. Census Bureau, Texas Department of State Health Services, Oklahoma State Department of Health, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Oklahoma State COVID-19 Dashboard, Iowa Deoartment of Public Health.

with OSU on testing protocols throughout the past semester, said Dr. Dale Bratzler, OU’s chief COVID officer.

On Jan. 22, Oklahoma was 10th in the nation in terms of statewide population incidence of COVID-19, Bratzler said. Just a week prior, Oklahoma was ranked third with 103 cases per 100,000 people.

Another wrinkle in university precautions, Barkin said, is that schools in some smaller communities can more easily create a “safety net” with resources to discourage off-campus travel, but schools that are more integrated within the larger communities — and have students who are

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be done on campus, but students’ behavior off-campus is where Norman residents bear the brunt of student impact.

The restrictions at OU and in Norman also may not have aligned with where students returned home for the holidays; however, and off-campus guidelines were violated throughout the fall semester, especially on Campus Corner.

“Where all the partying is happening, most Norman residents aren’t going. It’s just the students, but unfortunately our students do go to our restaurants, they work in our restaurants, they work in our stores, they go to our stores,” said Clark, who along with city councilmembers enacted a

“... to lay all the responsibility at the door of the student, it seems to me, is rather unfair.”

“

Although cases of COVID19 increased when students returned to campus for the fall semester, cases in six of nine counties home to Big 12 Conference universities saw their biggest spikes during the holidays — after students returned home.

After universities regained control of the virus’ spread when students came back, there were some smaller spikes throughout the fall months, but the counties that house OU, Oklahoma State, the University of Texas, Texas Christian University, Baylor University and Kansas State University all saw their newcase peaks after thousands of students left for the holidays, according to data compiled by The OU Daily.

The true test, however, may be in a few weeks, as universities and local leadership reboot campuses for a second time amid higher numbers of cases while combating rising pandemic fatigue, vaccine rollouts and new strains of the virus.

Success, according to university, city and national leaders on the subject, will ride on the key determinate from the fall — collaboration between campus and city or county officials, with the added challenge of overcoming conflicting messaging between many students’ hometowns and campuses.

The Daily examined new cases between March and Jan. 15 in Big 12 counties other than West Virginia’s Monongalia County, due to regional proximity. The analysis shows Texas Tech’s Lubbock County had the highest number of days in which new cases per 100,000 people surpassed 100, at 47, with OU tied for third in the counties measured at 12 days.

“If you’re telling me that people can travel on and off campus and go home on weekends to other communities, it would seem unlikely that some of the students wouldn’t be bringing COVID back to campus,” said Anita Barkin, co-chair of the COVID19 Task Force at the American College Health Association.

“Especially if you’re going to communities where there’s no mask mandate. … A big part of the problem with this from the very beginning has been the mixed messaging and the fact that this has been politicized to a point where we don’t have a national strategy.”

Barkin said pre- and on-arrival testing was a crucial starting point for universities that began the fall semester with in-person classes. She said following up with more frequent testing has been one of schools’ best strategies to catch false negatives or those who subsequently contracted the virus. Random testing and wastewater testing also have been successful monitoring methods, Barkin said, strategies some Big 12 schools like OU, Oklahoma State and Baylor have implemented.

“So much of this is resource dependent, because smaller schools or less well-resourced schools, simply the testing is very expensive, and it’s labor intensive,” Barkin said. “So if you don’t have the money or the staffing, it’s hard to do frequent testing.”

OU mailed pre-arrival testing in the spring semester for those living on campus, with the university coordinating

-Anita Barkin, Co-chair of the American College Health Association’s COVID-19 Task Force

more likely to come and go — can have difficulties containing their populations. Sarah Lawrence College in New York was an example of a smaller school that created this safety net, Barkin said, with almost 50 percent fewer undergraduate students on campus, adjusted walking routes and grab-andgo meals, among other measures according to National Geographic.

Barkin also mentioned Duke University is a larger school that has managed the pandemic well. With 15,634 students, the university required students to sign a “Duke Compact,” “agreeing to observe mandatory masking, social distancing, and participation in entry and surveillance testing.” The university also developed an app monitoring student symptoms, tracked COVID tests and results and used pooled testing to maximize resource efficiency.

With OU having implemented social distancing requirements, limits on class sizes and a mask mandate, Norman Mayor Breea Clark said managing students can

local mask mandate in July — even as there’s been no such statewide order — which was recently extended into March 2021. “This is obviously a very contagious virus, and so it has raised a lot of concerns about general safety in our community.”

“When people are saying ‘college students are responsible,’ I’m like, ‘Well, if college students are coming from communities, or they’re hearing within their own family the minimization of the seriousness of this, how can you expect them then to come to campus and comply with everything you’re telling them to comply with, when the messaging that they’ve heard to that point has been the opposite of what you’re asking them to do?’” Barkin said. “It makes it very difficult, and to lay all the responsibility at the door of the student, it seems to me, is rather unfair.”

DATA AND UNIVERSITY STRATEGIES States are in a coronavirus “red zone” if they have more than 100 cases per 100,000

population in a week, according to White House documents provided by the Center for Public Integrity. Lubbock County, home of Texas Tech, has had 47 such days above the 100-case benchmark since March, the highest among Big 12 universities The Daily measured. OU’s Cleveland County had 12 days, with 11 of those days — and its peak — after students left for the holidays.

“I think a lot of the bump that we saw around the holidays was holiday-related,” Bratzler said. “So students went home, families got together. And that huge surge that we saw probably was related to the holidays themselves, not the fact that universities were open or closed or anything else. More people went home and did events, family events and other things, where there was a lot of travel — the most travel that we’ve had since the start of the pandemic happened over the Christmas break.”

Iowa State’s Story County had the second-highest number of red zone days with 23. OU’s Cleveland County and Oklahoma State’s Payne County ranked third with 12 days. TCU’s Tarrant County had 10, Baylor University’s McLennan County had seven, Kansas State University’s Riley County had four, the University of Texas’ Travis County had one, and the University of Kansas’ Douglas County had zero red-zone days.

Dr. Kristen Obbink, Iowa State’s COVID-19 public health coordinator, said it’s hard to compare universities since students’ proportion of the county population varies. For example, Iowa State’s fall 2020 enrollment of 31,825 vs. Story County’s 97,117 residents means Cyclone students comprise nearly 33 percent of the county. By comparison, OU’s fall enrollment of 27,782 translates to less than 10 percent of the county.

Of the Big 12 schools The Daily examined, Iowa State has the largest student-to-county population. Oklahoma State was second, at 30.14 percent, then Kansas State at 28 percent, followed by Kansas and Texas Tech at 19.60 and just under 13 percent, respectively.

Baylor, Texas and TCU students account for 7.52 percent, 3.14 percent and .54 percent of their county populations, respectively.

“Everyone has different access to testing resources ... communities can just be varied in so many different ways … even the type of testing that you’re doing,” Obbink said.

“But in doing that, and then if you look at others that maybe use other types of testing, even that is hard to compare from place to place, because they just vary so much that you might be looking at apples and oranges instead of apples to apples. But yeah, certainly I think, while we do differ so much from area to area, we’ve all faced similar challenges as COVID has progressed (and) we learned to identify those.”

OU has been following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, such as physical distancing, masking and upgrading air filtration systems, Bratzler said. For OU, working with other schools on mitigation strategies has mostly been limited to state universities like Oklahoma State.

“Folks from OSU and I both routinely meet with the (state) regents to help coordinate,” Bratzler said, noting Oklahoma’s two largest universities have also been helping provide guidance to the smaller schools throughout the state.

Bratzler said he meets with the state regents routinely, and occasionally they have conference calls with university presidents to discuss mitigation strategies. The most interaction he has with other schools is regarding athletics, since there is a “very, very coordinated” response for all student athletes throughout the Big 12, with the conference playing 52 of 55 potential regular-season football games, according to the Associated Press. By comparison, the Big Ten Conference played 50 of 63 potential games, including the championship game, and the Pac-12 Conference played 31 of 42 potential games.

OU has worked with other schools to determine protocols for stadium management, team travel and other issues regarding its athletic teams, Bratzler said, and with only one football game canceled after the new schedule was released — the Sooners’ matchup against West Virginia — he believes they’ve done well in keeping athletes safe.

Between July and Dec. 26, OU

has administered more than 8,600 tests in the athletic department, with 153 positives, according to releases from the athletic department — although that number does not match the total number of reported recoveries at 294.

“We looked at quite a few universities at the start of the (fall) semester about testing strategies,” Bratzler said of OU at large. “It was part of how we came up with the decision to test all the students who have moved into congregate housing. But also we decided to focus fairly specifically on how we could do testing … we did do a large random sample of residence hall students a bit earlier in the (fall) semester, but recognize that our biggest challenge is the cost of the test.”

CARES act funding, which originally allocated $18 million to OU, has run out, Bratzler said. Half of those dollars went toward emergency grants to students, and remaining funding has paid for some of the on-campus testing — with all tests for Cate Center and pre-arrival testing at $100 or more per test. A new bill passed by congress did allocate additional funding for testing, and although IMMY labs — a popular Norman testing facility — shut down testing for a few days in early January, a new contract has resumed testing.

OU has discussed their own random testing of the university community, but Bratzler said attorneys have advised required testing would be very difficult except in residential housing since students who live there sign a contract with the university.

“That’s why we’re really excited about the rapid test, the antigen test, that we could potentially do on campus, more often, (with) bigger group of students. We’re just working through the logistics,” Bratzler said. “The biggest challenge with them is each one individually has to be handled, and you have to watch it for 15 minutes. So just the personnel to do the huge student body that we have on the Norman campus (is a challenge).”

Events are planned on campus for students using the rapid antigen test, with the university initially securing around 300,000 of the see BIG 12 page 2

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NEWS

• Feb. 2-8, 2021

OU Board of Regents aims to ‘diversify positional options’ University ready to accelerate vaccine distribution BLAKE DOUGLAS @Blake_Doug918

BIG 12: continued from page 1

BinaxNOW card test.

“We just got back the preliminary results on our Vault testing of the students moving back in the dormitories (this semester), and the positive rate was 3.5 percent or something; pretty low,” Bratzler said. “Our goal is to have some big testing events on campus when I can potentially coordinate some of our Health Sciences Center students to come down and help us do it, but to screen large numbers of students.”

SHARED GOVERNANCE KEY The university working with the local government has been crucial. Cleveland County’s highest spike during in-person classes — 114.78 new cases per 100,000 people — hit Nov. 7, a week after Halloween and about a week and a half after an ice storm left thousands in Norman without power for days, leading some community members to break their self-isolation practices. The county’s highest spike overall was Jan. 3 at 201.75 cases, a little over a week after Christmas Day. This was the same day as Payne County’s second-highest spike at 261.66.

Bratzler sits on the emergency operations committee for the city, which reviews and coordinates efforts on protocols enacted by the university and Norman as a whole.

“We think it’s very, very important — the role of the university and impacting the city of Norman in Cleveland County — so we’re very conscious of that, and work very closely with them,” Bratzler said.

Iowa State has also been working with its local government in combating COVID-19 in Ames, especially with the Story County public health department. Obbink said the

TREY YOUNG/THE DAILY

OU President Joseph Harroz during the OU Board of Regents meeting May 9.

the move was intended to diversify positional options at the university.

“I think this is part of the maturation to our goal, which is to be in that middle grouping of the (Association of American Universities public institutions). When you look at where they are, you really have to have that stratification (of faculty positions) and that range of options so that you can make sure you’re maximizing your research impact,” Harroz said. “We went through exhaustive work with the faculty senate over the course of months, and any time you do something with any kind of categorization of faculty there’s always discussion around it.”

Pierson said the policy change is intended to help draw a “broader, more diverse and inclusive” faculty as well as making recruitment and retention of faculty “more robust.”

Harroz and Pierson signaled hope the fall semester will see an increased return to normalcy, though Harroz acknowledged there would still be safety precautions in place.

Much of what the university will allow — including potential percentage attendance at

home football games — will rely on the state’s vaccination numbers, Harroz said.

Pierson said the university is “very well prepared” to begin increased vaccine distribution as more doses are received, adding OU could potentially “move even faster than county protocols would allow” along the state vaccination plan.

“I know we’re in discussions with the leadership of the state about doing more in that area, including mass vaccinations, but that’s not really controlled by us,” Pierson said.

Harroz also commented on the Jan. 18 release of the OU Black Emergency Response Team’s finalized demands from the February 2020 sit-in at Evans Hall and a Twitter thread from OU graduate and former BERT officer Miles Francisco, wherein Francisco offered reflections on his time in BERT and at OU. Francisco tweeted it was “difficult for (him) to look at OU’s strategic plan,” as he felt demands from the sit-in were “watered down to the point of being unrecognizable if not completely left out.”

Some of the finalized five demands BERT made

university had to “step in and step up” with all the resources they would need in virus prevention efforts since the county health department is quite small, and Iowa State makes up a large part of the county’s population.

Iowa State has taken on all of its own contact tracing and case investigation efforts to help the county health department, Obbink said, something that makes it unique compared to other Iowa schools.

They’ve also worked closely with the American College Health Association, which Bratzler personally has not worked with, and Iowa State’s director of student health services attends all of the association’s meetings and webinars.

Whenever the college health association issues new recommendations, Iowa State updates its senior leadership team and makes modifications if needed. The association specifically helped with recommendations for campus messaging targeting students going home for Thanksgiving, Barkin said.

“We’re very lucky to have great relationships with our county health department, as well as our county board of health, and, in addition, our community partners, so not just here in the city of Ames.

But even beyond that, in Story County, so our different health care facilities or school districts, city staff, all of those types and groups of people,” Obbink said.

In Norman, Clark has consulted Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce on strategies for college towns, and said the fluctuation in population when students arrive and leave is one of the hardest challenges COVID-19 presents. Although she communicates with other college-town mayors, she said it’s harder to work with other schools across the country since each state is impacted so differently.

Texas has had a statewide mask mandate since July 3, with some counties offered exemptions, and Kansas had a recent renewal of a statewide

mask mandate also with exemptions, but Oklahoma has never had a statewide mask mandate. Iowa developed a mask mandate in mid-November. As of Jan. 26, Oklahoma is ranked eighth in the country in terms of recent case counts, with a daily average of 2,577 new cases in the past seven days, according to the New York Times.

“In the middle of a pan-

“

Blake Douglas

bdoug99@ou.edu

social in nature. And as much as we’d like to think that they came back to college for the education only, it’s just simply not true,” Clark said. “And I tried to think back to 21-yearold Breea; would I have been able to have the restraint?

Especially if it was maybe my last year of college or, or something like that, to do this? And I wish I could say yes, but I don’t know ...

“... young people are social in nature. And as much as we’d like to think that they came back to college for the education only, it’s just simply not true.”

-Breea Clark, Norman mayor

demic, when you have 20,000plus young people return to your community, you have to be aware of it and work closely with our university partners. … It’s obviously nothing new and everyone enjoys, I think, a quiet summer in Norman and then the energy of the return in fall in terms of the economy,” Clark said. “But also the fact that the population increase is coming from a group of residents who are social in nature, and are here for an experience that involves not only getting an education, but a social experience, so that has been difficult as well.”

“So that’s been a challenge that I, frankly, don’t think any university has solved.”

Clark said she appreciated OU’s efforts to ensure campus safety during the pandemic, but city and university administrators still had to have open communication regarding students’ off-campus behavior.

“There’s no easy answer to any of this, and so I appreciate all the efforts that OU has done, and I honestly believe they’ve done everything they can, but young people are

“

The OU Board of Regents approved an increase to the percentage of ranked renewable term faculty at OU and promotion opportunities for non-regular faculty during its Thursday meeting.

The meeting began at 7:45 a.m., immediately entering executive session until the beginning of public session around 5:30 p.m. OU Board of Regents Chairman Gary Pierson began the public session by praising the university for “sticking it out” with extensive in-person classes in the fall semester while other universities “stayed home to do it over the television.”

Shortly after entering public session, the regents moved to simultaneously approve the consent items for Cameron University, Rogers State University and the University of Oklahoma. Among those items for OU were changes to university faculty appointments, including the increase in total percentage of ranked renewable term faculty from 10 to 20 percent of total university faculty.

Other approved changes included new levels of promotion for non-regular faculty with the ranks of “senior” and “distinguished” lecturer or instructor.

Some OU faculty expressed concern on Twitter the move signaled “adjunctification” of teaching positions at OU by increasing the cap of non-tenure track faculty permitted, but OU President Joseph Harroz and OU Board of Regents Chairman Gary Pierson said

— including the creation of a vice provost of institutional equity and excellence — were implemented, with former interim Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Jane Irungu currently serving in the position, interim Senior Vice President and Provost Jill Irvine wrote in an email to The Daily.

Other aspects of the demands, like the creation of a multicultural center, have been hamstrung by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dean of Students David Surratt said in an interview with The Daily. The duties intended for the advisory body overseeing the president and provosts’ offices proposed in BERT’s first demand were diverted to the already-existing Vice President’s Advisory Council, Surratt said.

In the Jan. 18 release, BERT wrote its leadership continued to work with OU’s administration “to make sure all demands are met in an equitable manner” and bring “long lasting institutional change.”

Harroz said he had not been aware of the disappointment Francisco expressed with the administration’s implementation of BERT’s demands.

“That’s surprising … so what I’ve heard has been really the opposite, that we’ve shown our commitment and lived up to it,” Harroz said. “Throughout, (Surratt), myself and (Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Belinda HiggsHyppolite) have stayed focused on that … from my perspective, and through all my communications it’s that we’ve certainly hopefully succeeded in those conversations.”

Pierson said he had not seen the Jan. 18 BERT press release.

The Board of Regents’ next regular meeting is scheduled for March 4 and 5.

“It was either not bring them back at all, or do everything you can when you bring them back. And that was the option that we took. And could it have been better? Yes. Could it have been worse? Yes. So I think we’re all doing the best we can.”

GRADING THE GUIDELINES Of all the Big 12 counties The Daily examined, Texas Tech had the most red zone days and Oklahoma State had the single highest day. On Jan. 8, Payne County recorded 294.68 new cases per 100,000 people; the next highest spike The Daily found from another county was in TCU’s Tarrant County at 258.79 cases per 100,000 people Dec. 29, with Texas Tech following at 248.58 cases on Nov. 16.

B a y l o r ’s M c L e n n a n County was the fourth-highest spike, at 210.82 cases per 100,000 people Dec. 29, OU’s Cleveland County was the fifth-highest at 201.75 on Jan. 3, and KSU’s Riley County was the sixth-highest with 160.31

TREY YOUNG/THE DAILY

Sassan Moghadam and Russ Smith, co-founders of Unite Norman, on Oct. 12.

Unite Norman seeks to form student group Co-founders aim for ‘balance in education’ at OU JILLIAN TAYLOR @jilliantaylor_

Unite Norman is planning to create an independent student group at OU in the hopes of “giving voices to conservative students.”

Unite OU was first mentioned in the Daily’s podcast “At the Seams,” by Unite Norman co-founders Sassan Moghadam and Russ Smith, who said it was in the beginning stages at the time. Moghadam said in an interview with the Daily that staff and students are being “forced to take courses that are ‘strictly liberal,’” and “they won’t graduate” unless they take them.

“OU needs to look at their neighbor and see the kind of damage that they’re doing to our community,” Moghadam said.

“We’ve t ried to stay in the middle and not be far right, and we’ve pushed on Dec. 4. UT’s Travis County and KU’s Douglas County followed, with 114.68 cases Jan. 14 and 95.7 cases Nov. 20, respectively.

Obbink said that with more testing on university campuses comes more identified positives, and that Iowa State was doing “a lot of testing,” which can contribute to the increased new case rates in the county. During the fall semester, Iowa State did not have any evidence of classroom transmission of the virus, which OU officials have also touted.

The state of Iowa had a massive outbreak as students returned to school at the beginning of the fall semester, and was one of four states that experienced significant upticks in new cases across the Midwest in September, according to The New York Times.

Iowa’s governor did not impose a statewide mask mandate until Nov. 16 after previously claiming mask-wearing was a “feel-good” measure, and Oklahoma has never imposed a statewide mandate.

Obbink said the city of Ames and Story County have both put mask mandates in place over the past few months, similar to measures some Oklahoma localities — like Norman — have put in place. “(Local government efforts have) been really helpful. And then we’ve always had a mask mandate here on campus, but then that expanded significantly as the semester went on,” Obbink said.

Bratzler said he’s been tracking the population incidence of new cases across the state in particular. These numbers show Cleveland County is fairly low, below the state average of new cases, but he has been splitting Norman from the rest of Cleveland County — as Moore has had some of the highest rates of transmissions in the state, with a lack of restrictions in the city. Rural Oklahoma counties have continued to increase, with spikes in Payne County, which have since dropped dramatically, and Alfalfa County — which

people out that were far r ig ht a s pa r t of Un ite Norman, … but university is supposed to be a place to learn everything that can be learned.”

Mo g h a d a m s a i d h e doesn’t have a problem with subjects like “socialism” or “communism” being taught at OU, but balance in education is necessary.

“We have professors that are being told they need to teach math, and (if) somebody tells them two plus two is five, they need to be tolerant of that,” Moghadam said. “I don’t want the guy designing my plane using the math that says two plus two is five.”

Smith and Moghadam said in a text message they are currently working with OU community members to organize the group but declined to name them at this time because of “the over 100 death threats” the group has received.

“We can not risk these people’s safet y,” Smith said in the message.

Jillian Taylor

jillian.g.taylor-2@ou.edu

was at one point second-highest county in the nation in population incidence.

“The script is flipped,” Clark said. “Before it was like, ‘Oh, man, the students are going to bring stuff back to the rural communities.’ And I’m like, ‘Please don’t bring what’s in the rural communities back to Norman on your way here.’”

Moving forward, OU has already received doses of the Pfizer vaccine that was recently approved by the FDA. However, Bratzler said he does not expect it to have much of an impact on the university until next fall since the first doses will go to healthcare workers, then elderly people or those with high-risk conditions. College-aged students without any preexisting conditions or who do not live in congregate housing are expected to be vaccinated in phase three of Oklahoma’s COVID vaccine distribution.

“I just think it’s going to be a while before there’s a sufficient number of doses available to actually start moving into lower-risk populations of people, such as students, and many of the staff and faculty,” Bratzler said. “So I don’t expect to see too much change for the spring semester; I think we will very much still be doing mitigation strategies. I have sincere hopes that as we start to vaccinate more and more people, it’ll be harder and harder for the virus to spread from person to person.”

“But I think we’re a ways away from that right now.”

It all leaves Bratzler, Barkin and local leaders like Clark hoping to help people they lead to stay the course, to continue to take things seriously and to not let their guards down.

“I think it’s going to be a lot of the same issues, unfortunately,” Clark said. “It will be great on campus, the testing will go well. And then the social part will be the biggest battle we fight.”

Jordan Miller

jordan.r.miller-1@ou.edu

CULTURE

Feb. 2-8, 2021 •

3

‘Yeehaw, now I’ve got a mullet’

OU students bring iconic 80s hairdo back to campus ABBY TOW @abby_tow

O n a Tu e s d a y a f t e rnoon in Moore, OU history and film senior Marley Lunsford arrives at Carmichael’s Salon to trim and color the vintage hairstyle they adopted in June — a mullet.

The haircut from another time — short in the front, long in the back — has made a comeback, and the resurfacing of this bona fide 1980s phenomenon has served as a welcomed change for some OU students in the wake of a tumultuous and isolated year.

The desire to get a mullet came to Lunsford when they realized they wanted a haircut that best fit their gender identity, which they came to terms with over quarantine. “It’s just kind of somewhere between the feminine and the masculine. ...

It’s not conventional, and I think it kind of represents something I can’t really explain,� Lunsford said.

The mullet is just one iteration of Lunsford’s already existing appreciation for 1980s aesthetics and the icons that made them synonymous with the time. Oversized blazers and jackets, cuffed jeans and the overall 80s style are part of Lunsford’s look.

The inspiration for the mullet ultimately came from John Taylor, bass guitarist for 80s English rock band Duran Duran.

T h e a n a c h ro n i s m o f wearing a mullet in 2020 isn’t lost on Lunsford, but the haircut is about more than just an aesthetic — it’s about gender identity and bringing back a look that “transcended� the binary. “It’s mostly just about pushing the mullet agenda ... to convince other people to get this ridiculous haircut,� Lunsford said.

The 80s also serve as inspiration for

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OU student August Stroud showcases his mullet Jan. 29 (top row). Jack McGown (middle row) and Marley Lunsford (bottom row) showcase their mullets Nov 15.

Walkman-wearing, mixtape-making history junior August Stroud. After quarantine and a return to school in the fall, he finally went for the haircut he’d been eyeing. “It was actually a running joke with my hair guy for a couple years.

I’ve been threatening that I would do it because I’ve wanted to for a long time,�

Stroud said. “And eventually I was just like, you know what, I’ve been on l o c k d o w n f o r m o n t h s.

I’m half insane. I’m just gonna freakin’ go for it. ‌ Yeehaw, now I’ve got a mullet.�

The look was meant to go against the grain, and Stroud said he has been met with mixed reactions. “Most people are absolutely incredulous,� Stroud said. “I remember when I got it, I was sitting in the kitchen, and my dad came in. ... He was like, ‘Wow, that’s like a real mullet, huh?’ And I was like, ‘It’s as real as yours was.’�

Stroud said having a

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knack for trend-watching led him to predict the mullet’s comeback a few years ago when movies and television began to adopt 80s aesthetics. “I was thinking to myself, the next logical step in this is going to be mullets, and I need to be on the forefront of that because I think they’re great,� Stroud said.

This hunch proved to be true, said Brian Bale, Stroud’s hairdresser. “(Stroud’s) on the edge of, like, every trend, always tells me what’s coming up, and he’s always right. ... Sure enough, I saw it happening with other hairdressers as well as myself,� Bale said. “Big uptick in mullets.�

Bale said the return of mullets resides within a particular demographic. Young people are opting for the style, but older generations who once had mullets in their original era of popularity are leaving the cut where it was born — in the past.

“It’s definitely mostly younger people,� Bale said. “The older people still have the end of the era stuck in their head. They don’t remember the beginning of the era when it was fun. They remember the hangers on, and they don’t want to be grouped in with that.�

The era in question — one where the mullet was a “cutting edge� import from London aired by way of American television screens on MT V — represented a rebellion, Bale said.

Bale himself donned a mullet at the haircut’s rise to popularity in the early 80s, which s er ve d as a compromise between his parents desire for a cleancut look and the rebellious longer style he was excited about, he said. “As a guy ... as a teenager ... it was the ultimate rebellion to grow your hair out. ... My parents were like, ‘Alright, we’ll let you grow the back out, but you gotta keep the front short

HOROSCOPE

By Eugenia Last

Copyright 2020, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2021 ASTROGRAPH by Eugenia Last Motivation and discipline will help you achieve whatever you set out to do this year. Ask questions, gather information and strive to make a difference. Taking care of your mental, emotional and physical well-being will help you ward off any negative influences you encounter.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Take care of financial, medical and legal matters before they have a chance to escalate. Let your instincts lead the way. You must find out who’s on your side and who isn’t.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) -- Use your intuition and creative mind to push forward. Make changes that will help you get ahead.

Let go of what no longer works for you. Choose a positive path.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- You’ll be right on target. Your insight and ability to take control and get things done will be impressive.

How you handle others will pay off.

Spend some meaningful time with a loved one.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -Uncertainty will prevail if you make a premature move. Consider every angle before you forge ahead with plans that can affect your income.

When in doubt, talk to an expert.

Be careful with your health.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- You’ll be offered insight that can help you make an important decision. Added discipline will pay off when putting together a proposal or taking advantage of an opportunity that comes your way.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -Don’t flirt with temptation. An attraction to something or someone will put you at a disadvantage if you are too friendly or

accommodating. Take a wait-andsee approach.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- Handle professional matters and partnerships with discretion. Making an impromptu move or decision will set you back. Nurture essential relationships to avoid a falling-out.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Do whatever it takes to arm yourself with the necessary information, skills and experience to follow your dreams. Take responsibility for your happiness. It’s up to you to make things happen.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) -- Don’t procrastinate. Opportunities are available; all you have to do is to take action. Speak up, share your ideas and engage in stimulating conversation. Love and romance are favored.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) -- Keep your thoughts and plans secret. Don’t give anyone ammunition that will set you back or interfere with your life. Work under the radar until you have everything in place.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) -- Reach out to people who can help you bring about positive change. An opportunity to raise your earning potential or start a new career looks inviting. Romance is in the stars.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- Take a back seat and listen carefully. The information offered will help you make adjusments at home to improve your performance, but roommates, family or friends aren’t likely to be impressed.

and respectable,’� Bale said.

Wearing longer hair has been a site of fluctuation and deviation from the norm for men more than once.

The “Flock of Seagulls� cut, which included grown out bangs, followed the mullet’s rise and fall in popularity, and even more recently, the longer eye-covering hairstyle of a young Justin Beiber in the early 2010s brought about a trend to the dismay of some mothers who wanted to keep their sons’ hair short, Bale said.

While at the time, rebellion against gender norms wasn’t the explicit intent of the mullet, Bale said the longer hair was worn by some of the most “macho� figures in pop culture, like heavy metal and new wave ensembles that also wore makeup. “I remember how excited I was at the time to get (a mullet), and I just wanted to make that experience special for the people

that want to,� Bale said. “A perfect storm� of the mullet reentering the popular consciousness before quarantine started and the lack of access to haircuts amid stay at home orders has brought in more men with longer hair than Bale has ever seen in his career, he said.

When pre-nursing and sociology sophomore Jack McGown’s hair began to grow out over quarantine and his cousin went after the mullet, he took the opportunity to get the cut, too. “ I n Ma rc h , w h e n w e got into quarantine and everything, my hair started getting longer, and my aunt made a bet with me that if I grew a mullet she’d pay me $1,000. So I was like you know what, my hair is already getting long — might as well do it.�

McG ow n said he admired OSU head football coach Mike Gundy’s mullet in particular — one of a few men involved in collegiate athletics who sport the look.

OU offensive lineman C r e e d Hu m p h r e y c u rrently dons a mullet in his Twitter profile photo and showed off the look at the team’s season closer in December.

For McGown, the mullet represents a happier time to be a college student and a chance to stand out. “I wanted to emulate the 80s. The 80s was a vibe.

The music was great. ... I mean there was obviously stuff going on, but I feel like there weren’t as many issues,� McGown said.

Amid an uncertain year littered with chaos, loneliness, death and an equal amount of despair, the mullet has had its moment again — a moment that Bale said has made hairdressing fun among the not-so-great landscape of the times. And so long as college students adopt the mullet’s original successor, Bale said his next prediction is a return of the perm.

Abby Tow

abby.tow1@ou.edu

Universal Crossword Edited by David Steinberg February 2, 2021

ACROSS 1 Rho follower 6 Plate scraper 10 Ad-___ (improvise) 13 Damson of “Snowfall�

14 Region 15 Marge Simpson’s oldest daughter 16 Signified 17 Snarky remarks 18 Rain during a honeymoon, perhaps 19 “Out, damned Spot!�?

21 Important buzzer 23 Brewhouse orders 24 Complaining bitterly 26 Food filled with a sweet spread 30 Like undeveloped talent 33 WSJ headliner 34 Michonne’s portrayer in “The Walking Dead�

35 Big-name star 37 What you hope to do under an umbrella 39 “Restore defaults� button 40 Palindromic Lunar New Year celebration

2/2

41 About ___ big 42 Grocery store convenience 46 False excuse 47 “Like that would happen!�

51 Couch for two 54 Quarterback’s cry 56 Actor David ___ Grier 57 Condescending person 59 “El ___�

(1983 immigration drama) 60 All ears 61 Spanish for “blue�

62 Xeon Processor brand 63 Decorate, as Easter eggs 64 Measure symbolized by a W 65 Rips DOWN 1 Lion who fights Scar 2 Standard of perfection 3 A+, say 4 Thinkers 5 Concerning 6 Start of an Indian mausoleum’s name 7 Some dinar spenders 8 Cloud in space 9 Start gradually

10 Big branch 11 “That makes sense�

12 Ruination 15 You might take it when you aren’t in a hurry 20 Red, green or purple fruit 22 Closing of a window?

25 Dia de San Valentin word 26 Performer’s butterflies 27 Movie adventurer Jones’ nickname 28 Meticulous attention 29 “Hey there!�

30 Like pink steak 31 Morgan of soccer 32 Bit of hair 36 Quetzalcoatl’s reptilian form

37 Lay’s chips in a tube 38 Last Commandment’s position 43 Fluctuate 44 Group of lyrical lines 45 Opposite of “take in,� in tailoring 47 Do penance 48 To a degree, informally 49 Lead-in to “leave� or “weave�

50 Senses 51 Non-vegan fat 52 Eye cream maker 53 Smoke an e-cig 55 64-Across, for one 58 Club relative

PREVIOUS ANSWER PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

2/1 1/26

Š 2021 Andrews McMeel Universal Š 2021www.upuzzles.com Andrews McMeel Universal www.upuzzles.com

That’s So Yesterday ... or Is It? by Erik Agard

4

SPORTS

• Feb. 2- 8, 2021

OU extends historic win streak Sooners topple Alabama in fifthconsecutive victory AUSTIN CURTRIGHT @AustinCurtright

With 1:23 remaining and the Sooners up two points, Elijah Harkless ran back on defense.

Oklahoma’s offense was struggling, and Harkless knew the defense needed a stop after surrendering a 12-point lead earlier in the second half. He knew Austin Reaves couldn’t bail OU out with a big shot. He knew Alondes Williams couldn’t provide any energy. Alabama was hot, and he knew that, too.

The junior transfer clapped his hands near the top of the midcourt logo, surveying his teammates’ spots on the court, as he non-verbally told them they needed to step up. The OU defense, led by Harkless, prevailed in perhaps the most important possession of the game.

The Sooners forced A laba ma gu a rd Ja d e n Shackelford to miss a layup, but the Cr imson Tide snagged the offensive rebound, granting the offense a reset on the possession.

Alabama then attempted a potential game-tying three, but sophomore for ward Jalen Hill contested it and forced a miss.

As senior forward Brady Manek came down with the rebound, the limited-capacity, sold-out crowd at the Lloyd Noble Center erupted. The defense came up with two stops and kept No. 9 Alabama scoreless in the final four minutes. The Crimson Tide also went without a three in the final seven minutes, despite ranking No. 5 in the nation in 3-pointers made this season.

Harkless, who scored his

TREY YOUNG/THE DAILY

Junior guard Elijah Harkless and the Sooners celebrate after securing victory during the game against No. 9 Alabama on Jan. 30.

season-high in points with 14, kept up his play as the defensive catalyst for OU. He has four consecutive games with at least three steals, and since being added to the starting lineup Jan. 9, is averaging the fourth-most stealsper-game among Power Five conferences.

“I think early on, they were surprised at how well we played defense,” Harkless said. “They don’t play a lot of Big 12 teams. The SEC, they’re kind of down right now.”

A l t h o u g h A l a b a m a’s chances of winning were already diminished, in the next offensive possession for the Sooners, Harkless hit a turnaround jump shot that iced the game. No. 24 Oklahoma (11-4 6-3 Big 12) held on for a 66-61 home win over No. 9 Alabama (144, 9-0 SEC) on Saturday afternoon in the SEC/Big 12

Challenge despite missing Reaves and Williams due to COVID-19 protocols.

The Sooners’ defense was important in the win, as it’s been during their five-game win streak, holding opponents to under 70 points for the sixth time in the last seven games. OU also became the third team in NCAA history with four top10 ranked wins in a calendar month, and the first team to do it since 1974.

Despite their in-game absence, Reaves and Williams still got to celebrate with their team after the win.

They were both separately FaceTimed in a post- game huddle outside OU’s locker room. The team found out they’d miss the game before practice on Friday, limiting the time to prepare for their absence and enhancing the difficulty of the win.

“I think it’s great to get a

win without our two leaders in Alondes and Austin,” Harkless said. “The satisfaction of winning, to know that we made the big steps and actually capitalize in the last seconds to get a win is huge.”

Multiple Sooners made key contributions o n S a t u rd a y i n R e av e s and WIlliams’ absence.

Sophomore guard De’Vion Harmon scored 18 points while junior guard Umoja Gibson and senior forward Brady Manek both had 12.

Manek played 24 minutes Saturday — the most minutes he’s had since testing positive for COVID-19 earlier in January. He also scored his most points since he had 13 on Dec. 29 against Houston Baptist.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons,” Manek said after the game. “We’ve got guys offensively, guys defensively. This is a strange year, and you can

take two of our leaders, two of our players out, and we can still come up with a win like that against a really good Alabama team.

“We got guys that can change positions within two days and play amazing. I mean, we’ve just got a lot of weapons and I think that’s going to help us in the end. Especially when we get down to it, we don’t know who’s going to be playing, who’s going to be out, we don’t know who’s going to be hurt. It’s just basketball.

It’s been a strange year and I’m glad to have these guys with us.”

Manek, who’s had an uncharacteristic season and is averaging the least points per game since his freshman year with 11, felt he needed to step up to be the senior leader of his team.

“I just wanted to play really hard today,” Manek said.

“I knew that (I’ve) been in a slump, haven’t been making shots (and it’s) been kind of keeping me out, and I knew that if I just played hard and did what I could, everything else (would) hopefully fall in place, and I think that’s what happened.”

Manek scored two points on 1-of-5 shooting in the first half, and also missed the first two shots of the second half.

Manek looked primed to continue his slump, but he converted an and-one layup that led to eight consecutive points for the 6-foot-9 senior. Manek played 16 of his 24 minutes in the second half and added six rebounds, with multiple in crucial moments.

“It was so great to see that,” head coach Lon Kruger said about Manek’s play. “I know fans and players have been pulling for him so badly, and really the last few days in practice are the first time he’s kind of looked healthy.

And I think that coincides with him getting more results, but he fought, (and) got some big rebounds.

“Excited for Brady, and COVID hit him awfully hard, and it’s great to have him back and I think he will keep making strides from here.”

If the former All-Big 12 third team selection can get back to his former self, the Sooners can be even more of a threat offensively. Along with its defensive play, OU hopes to make noise at the national level come March.

“Unbelievable, man,” Harkless said of Manek’s performance. “We go to new heights. He stepped up big tonight. He might not have gotten 30 points, but he did some real senior leadership things. … I think him just being a familiar face for Oklahoma helped us get this win tonight.”

Austin Curtright

austincurtright@ou.edu

Men’s gymnastics leaps into virual meet Virtual streaming app allows Sooners to compete online MASON YOUNG @Mason_Young_0

Ambert Yeung answered the call from Mark Williams.

Oklahoma’s head coach was reaching out to the former Stanford gymnast in advance of his team’s Dec. 12 intrasquad meet in Norman to make sure everything was on track. Williams and the 12-time national champion Sooners were set to become one of the first collegiate teams to use Yeung’s new product. Despite the immense pressure Williams’ request brought, Yeung stuck the landing.

Williams’ phone call was preceded by another call Yeung had received in April.

Head Stanford men’s gymnastics coach Thom Glielmi notified him of cuts the Cardinal’s athletic department was making due to COVID-19 and considered his program — despite its six NCAA championships and 35 championship appearances — lucky to be among the survivors. On July 8, Stanford announced the elimination of 11 teams, including field hockey, men’s wrestling and multiple rowing programs.

Yeung earned his degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford. He went on to work for Apple’s product design team in China for five years before returning to Silicon Valley. Glielmi wanted to know if his former student could use his mastery of technology to make a gymnastics season possible amid COVID19 in 2021.

“I personally always wanted to contribute something to this sport and this community,” said Yeung, who was part of Cardinal teams that competed against OU in 2004

TREY YOUNG/THE DAILY

Head coach Mark Williams during the virtual meet against Army on Jan. 30.

and 2005. “Obviously, my gymnastics was not that, as I learned when I was younger. … (Thom) was really worried that all this work that everybody had put in to get this far might just be gone.”

Nearly 10 months since Glielmi’s plea, Yeung has created Virtius, a new streaming platform that allows teams to compete against one another virtually from their respective home arenas. Already, three regular-season NCAA sanctioned meets have been completed using Virtius and 15 more will be broadcast on the platform by season’s end.

Williams and the Sooners ended up being able to test out the tech in a few preseason practices and their intrasquad competition, and they will now use it in an actual meet for the first time when they take on Army at 3 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 30 in Norman.

Simultaneously, Army will be participating from the Gross Center in West Point.

The Virtius system is complex from the inside but simple on the outside. Optimized for the camera of an iPhone 11 or a newer Apple product,

the Virtius mobile streaming app is used to video the gymnasts’ performances and relay them to the company’s servers. From there, NCAA judges have access to submit their scores from remote locations in real time, while fans view the meets free on the Virtius website. Both teams’ routines can be viewed using the site despite the squads not being in the same arena together.

OU is paying the same undisclosed league-wide price as its opponents for its use of the system.

Yeung began developing Virtius during the summer after the previous gymnastics season was canceled two-thirds of the way in due to the pandemic. At the time, OU was 8-2 and ranked No. 2 nationally. In August, Yeung gave a demonstration to the Collegiate Gymnastics Association (CGA) using footage from Stanford’s national championship win over OU in 2019, and college coaches voted unanimously to move forward with virtual competition.

Williams, Glielmi and Army head coach Doug Van

Everen became some of Yeung’s biggest backers in his endeavor. Ultimately, the CGA petitioned the NCAA in November to allow virtual meets. To the surprise of Williams, the association ruled in their favor. Other OU teams have been creative in navigating COVID-19, but few sports lend themselves to such virtual competition.

“This is a COVID year, and so everybody’s had to kind of think outside the box a little bit on how do we make it so we can continue to do our sport,” Williams said. “And I think they realized that this might be a good way for us to just sustain men’s gymnastics not only for this year, but maybe long term with how it benefits us in costs.”

OU’s looming meet against Army is one of two it’s currently set to execute virtually this season, although scheduling arrangements are extremely fluid. Had those competitions been in-person road events, the Sooners’ usual traveling party of 20–22 gymnasts, coaches and support staff members would have expended a large portion of its

budget to face opponents like the Black Knights in New York and Stanford in the Bay Area.

Programs around the nation can now also spend less time on determining testing, quarantine, lodging and other COVID-19 safety procedures for travel.

Virtius’ simplicity and accessibility could pave the way for new gymnastics fans in the future. In the interim, it provides a chance for friends and family of gymnasts to watch meets without being there in person since the Sooners are rarely televised. In particular, Williams considered junior all-arounder Spencer Goodell, whose parents aren’t easily able to travel from Oregon to attend meets.

“I think it is very beneficial for this system to be able to be broadcasted nationwide for those guys that their families are way too far out of town to make the trip,” senior team captain Gage Dyer said. “(It’s) just a good opportunity for everyone to be able to tune in and watch this.”

The initial logistics of using the product weren’t completely smooth. Without access to multiple large production crews like those of television broadcasting companies, Yeung had to train athletic department staff members at schools across the country how to use the app. For OU to be able to harness the system’s power, it had to significantly upgrade the internet speeds inside 93-year-old McCasland Field House.

Judging has also been significantly affected by the move. Judges are knowingly putting their reputations at higher risk by agreeing to evaluate and score routines from a computer screen rather than what they can see in person.

Some judges may even work from home, being unable to confer with others about scores in person.

During trial runs in OU’s

intrasquad, a system glitch caused a score to be entered incorrectly. There was also a camera that died, forcing staff to act quickly to get the video to the judges for scoring. Other than that, Williams said he felt like the process ran satisfactorily.

“I think it’s been awesome for Ambert to present this concept, and that maybe we can get more of men’s gymnastics out where people can see it,” Williams said. “I think that’s just been kind of an exciting process to see how much better he’s been able to get it just since December.”

Yeung admitted engineering Virtius to produce high-quality video for a fast-moving sport was a challenge, and outcomes are still dependent on bandwidth. But those using his product are grateful, regardless of potential malfunctions or concerns, for the opportunity to continue competing.

That’s especially true of the Sooners, who are ranked No. 1 in the nation and vying for another title. Right now, Virtius is a novel way to keep their championship hopes alive amid coronavirus.

“Obviously, it’s not ideal, but I think all of us are feeling blessed and fortunate to be able to compete,” Dyer said.

“Having that opportunity to go out there and show all the hard work we’ve done, even if it’s virtual, I think it’s very beneficial to the athletes’ mental health, and just the overall success and continuing to build this legacy that we’re doing. So, I think it’s a great thing. I think they have everything under control in the best way they possibly can, and I think everyone is just extremely happy that we actually have the chance to compete even if it’s not in person.”

Mason Young

mason.e.young-1@ou.edu